Harry Potter and Operation Riddle
by michaelc100
Summary: Harry has just finished his sixth year at Hogwarts. Harry has an important mission to complete and needs to rely on his friends but things are not as they seem when he gets to the Burrow. On Hold for the moment
1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter and Operation Riddle

By Michael Cornfoot

Chapter one: At Home with the Dursleys

The Hogwarts express slowly pulled into platform nine and three quarters at Kings Cross station. The mood was very somber and quiet. This feeling seemed to flow out of every student and parent alike. It seemed to even flow out of the walls. It was a sharp contrast for most of them who last September had boarded the same train in high spirits only to return home with those spirits whisked away from them by the sudden death of their former headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore.

Harry met with members of the order, including Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Remus and Tonks, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Granger who were also at the station, and were in deep conversation with the Weasley family. Harry wished he could have been adopted by a family like the Weasley's and had a care-free life without being famous, without being special, just being Harry, a green eyed, black haired boy who had a loving family, and would still have Ginny Weasley as a girlfriend, which was something within Harry's power to change.

All the adults had come to take their children home, apart from Remus and Tonks who were going to take Harry back to Privet drive, something that Harry had not wanted to do, except he felt compelled to do because he had promised Dumbledore the previous summer that he would return one more time to keep the wards in place around his Muggle relatives home for the summer. Harry still wanted to honor this promise even though the headmaster was dead. Harry knew that he would do anything that he had asked of him, well almost, even if it seemed odd at the time that was how much Harry had trusted Dumbledore.

They all said their somber good byes, and hugs, especially with Mrs. Weasley and the golden trio before slowly heading towards the barrier and heading off in their own direction. Nobody wanted to be parted; as they were all still grieving and all wanted to remain together to help protect each other but plans were already in motion for the summer.

However, without anyone noticing, Harry slipped a letter into Ginny's pocket for her to open when she got home, before Harry rejoined Remus and Tonks on their trek to platform three where they were going to catch a commuter train to Surrey which also stopped on the outskirt station of Little Whinging. Harry had worked for a long time after he had realized that what he had done to Ginny was very stupid and that he should get back together with her, but to Harry's horror, she was avoiding him like the black death, which made Harry come up with this other plan.

Harry didn't mind traveling by train, even though he had spent most of the day on the Hogwarts Express with Ron and Hermione, as he didn't really want to meet again with his Aunt or Uncle. Tonks and Remus kept their eyes open for unusual activity amongst the Muggle crowd while they made their way to the platform where the train would be waiting for them. Harry was used to Muggle transport, having used it all of his life, but found it rather slow compared to the flew network, or appiration. It was starting to get to Harry, and made him wish that he had his appiration license so that he could quite literally "pop" home, but it wasn't his birthday for another two months, and he didn't want to find himself in front of another trial where the ministry would blackmail him into working for them.

Harry had informed his relatives that he would be returning home today only to receive a reply from them a day later telling Harry that they would not pick Harry up with such little notice and on a whim, and that he had to make his own way back to the house, but to make sure that the neighbors did not see him, and that none of his kind came with him to disgrace the Dursley reputation, which was so prized in the area, even though none of the neighbors would normally care if the Dursleys didn't start half of the rumors to begin with.

Harry passed this information onto Professor McGonagall to find that she had already anticipated this response and had already made other arrangements for him to get back to Privet Drive and that he would find out at King's Cross what the details where as they were still being finalized with the order, which was practically being rebuilt since the death of Dumbledore, which included a new secret keeper, re initiating all of the members after, of course, interrogating them to make sure that they were who they said they were as well as making sure that each one of them were on the side of light, instead of a death eater of one of their sympathizers.

Harry thought back to what had happened over the last few days. He had attended the funeral of his mentor, received a vow from his two best friends that they would follow him to the ends of the earth and helps him in his quest, and had o break up with the most wonderful young woman in the world (Ginny for all those new readers out there)

Harry felt the tears well up in his eyes. His life was so unfair. Everyone he had loved had been taken away from him or had a threat of death hanging over them. Life was so unfair to Harry. He wanted to be normal and just Harry who had a loving family and his Girlfriend in his life, but he didn't because of a homicidal maniac who was out to get him and everybody that he knew and love. His parents, his grandparents, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore; they were all murdered because of their beliefs and way of life, as well as the fact that they were all connected to a young wizard called Harry Potter.

Harry could cope with being Voldermort's number one target, and could even cope with loosing the final battle, but could never cope if any more loved ones were taken from him, he would not allow it, and would rather die in their place. Harry knew that he must try any method to try to kill Voldermort before he could kill anyone else, especially those that he loved. He knew that Voldermort would get even worse now that he still lived and posed a threat to him, even though he did not know the full prophecy, unlike Harry. He knew that Voldermort would resort to any method to try to kill Harry in person, who was the last Potter alive, the last descendant of the Potter name, honorary member of the Weasley family, and a famous, rich wizard, not to mention that he was one of Hogwarts "Hotties."

Harry thought back to the letter that he had put in Ginny's pocket before they left the platform. He had prepared it just before they had left Hogwarts, and it was something that he wanted Ginny to have. Harry had told Ron and Hermione after the funeral that he had split up with Ginny and they had both called him a complete idiot. Harry had not been expecting this response, especially from Ron, who was Ginny's own brother. Harry was sure that Ron would stand by his decision, but Ron had told Harry that she was still a major threat from Voldermort, as Malfoy and Snape both knew that he was dating Ginny and they both knew his true feelings for her, not to mention that she was a Weasley and that alone would put her pretty high on any death eater list. Ron also told Harry that him dumping her would leave her more vulnerable to Voldermort as he would not be there to protect her, even though he was not going back to Hogwarts, Harry would still be able to protect her, at least in part, by being her boyfriend as it would scare the junior death eaters at least in part who had already seen Harry's power.  
On the envelope, Harry had told Ginny to only open the envelope when she was alone, but as soon as she opened it, confetti would fly out and stick to her. It was a daft joke, but Harry needed for her to be in a slightly good mood to read his letter.

Harry knew that this would drive her mad or make her laugh. Harry just hoped that she would laugh as he knew that she was extremely upset at the moment with all the things that had been happening, with Dumbledore's death and then Harry splitting up with her, for which he would be eternally sorry for. He only hoped that she would take him back.

Inside the envelope, Harry had put a charm as well as a letter. The charm would conjure hundreds of roses and lilies, which he knew were Ginny's favorite flowers. Harry hoped that this would at least allow Harry to make up with her, and that she would be his girlfriend again, even if he was not forgiven for his stupid behavior. Harry hoped that Ginny's feelings towards him hadn't changed. He didn't know how he would cope if he had lost Ginny forever.

Harry couldn't cope with being apart from Ginny and had decided before he had left Hogwarts that he was going to write her a letter telling her how much of a prat he was and how much he wanted her back. After Harry had broken up with Ginny, he realised just how much Ginny was a part of him and how much he loved her. Harry knew that he wanted to spend every day of the rest of his life with Ginny and knew that he wanted to marry her. Even though he had Ginny had only been dating over the past few weeks, their feelings for each other had grown so quickly. It scared Harry that his feelings for her were so strong. He had never had any feelings like this before and didn't know what to do about them or how to express them. Harry had noticed one night that his body had even reacted in some way to a very, very erotic dream that he was having about Ginny. He had never had such a dream before and had wondered if it were normal to want to do the things in his dream in real life or if it was some weird fantasy. Harry couldn't talk to his form mates for fear of being laughed at and he especially couldn't talk to Ron about it as it involved his sister, so Harry was stuck. What should he do? Was this normal for Harry to have these bodily reactions when he was thinking about Ginny? What if it wasn't normal? Harry thought back to the letter that he had wrote and wondered if it would work.

Dear Ginny

I'm so sorry for the way that I have treated you since the funeral. It was unfair, foolish and very stupid. I should not have broken up with you for your safety and I know now that you would be in the same danger without me as you would with me. Even though you being with me would drive me insane with worry over your safety, I know (after encountering it) that you could look after yourself.

I love you. So much that I can't show you, no matter what I do. Over the past few weeks, you have taught me how to start showing my feelings towards you, which has been more difficult to learn, even more than the spells from NEWT level at Hogwarts. This has been the way of life for me, to suppress my emotions, move on and protect others. I would call it nobility and courage, you would call it stupidity and I agree with you. I have been so stupid over this whole thing. Being with you in a relationship has been the most wonderful of things which I have encountered, and even outweighs flying and the magical world itself.

I miss being your boyfriend so much.

You are the best thing that has happened to me... ever. You are my soul mate and you are the most wonderful, beautiful, most intelligent woman out there. And I mean every word of it. You are so beautiful to me and you mean everything to me.

Just seeing you entering the room brightens my day no end. Your smile distracts me for hours and hours. Your touch makes my skin tingle for days at a time; so much that I can't concentrate or even think properly.

I know that you probably can't forgive me but I'm begging forgiveness from you.

Even if we can not be together any more because I've hurt you too much, can we at least still be friends?

I value your friendship so much, especially over the past year, and I would hate to loose you even as that because of my stupid actions.

Love

Harry

Harry thought that Ginny would be opening the letter any minute and hoped that she liked it. Harry hoped that Ginny would accept his apology, and at least be friends with him again, but Harry wanted so much more. He had let his mind wander and imagined himself married to Ginny and having a family with her. Harry wanted a family so much, but only wanted it with Ginny, the young woman he now knew that he loved with all his heart. Harry then wondered about how a family was created. Harry had never found out how. He had suspicions but he had never plucked up the courage to ask anyone. Harry's mind wondered back to who he could have asked. His dad, Sirius, Lupin, Mr. Weasley. He figured that if he survived this whole ordeal and was with Ginny again, then he would find out how.

Harry was going to apologies to Ginny at school but she had been avoiding him like the plague, so Harry thought that this would be the next best thing and would also allow her to think before she had a run in with Harry again. This made Harry extremely nervous. He knew that Ginny must be very upset with him. Had Harry ruined everything that he had with Ginny? Did he loose her forever in any capacity?

Harry snapped out of his thoughts as he was led into a train carriage on the platform that would take Harry to his aunt and uncle for the summer, with the promise that he would be able to leave well before his birthday at the end of July - which was seven weeks away. Seven Weeks!!

Harry didn't know how he would cope with it all. Even though Harry knew that he had coped with longer in the past before he knew about the magical world, it was because of the magical world that made it so hard to stay with his abusive relatives, who would sooner spit than have Harry stay with him. Harry didn't belong with them any more; he belonged in the world of Magic where a swish of a wand could do almost anything.

Harry hated his relatives so much and would rather buy his own place than live there at Privet Drive, but Harry had made a promise to his former headmaster that he would return one more time before his seventeenth birthday to keep the spell active so that he and the Dursleys would be safe.

Harry decided that after his seventeenth birthday, he would go and look for his own place that he could call home. He didn't want to go back to his godfather's old house if he could help it, nor rely on Mrs. Weasley to provide for him. Harry felt that it was time for a bit of independence, where he could make all of the decisions about what he did and when.

Harry desired independence so much that he cold taste it. It felt exactly the same as when he was in third year and Sirius had offered him a place to stay, before he had to go on the run. Harry enjoyed it, the feel that he was nearly free, and able to dictate his own future.

However, Harry did not let the idea overwhelm him too much. He knew that property prices in the Muggle world were increasing every day and wondered whether the same thing was happening in the Wizarding world. He also wondered whether he actually owned what was left of Goodrich's Hollow, and whether he could build a place there, or if it was still a crime scene after all these years. Harry wanted to visit to make sure and to see where his life had started.

"Harry, hold up a sec," Remus said, stopping at the front door of Number Four, Privet Drive. Harry looked at him questioningly, wondering why Remus had stopped him. "There will be two inspections a day during the summer. One at 8 am and one at 8 pm. This is just so you can pass on any information to us that you might come across and for us to do the same with you. It will also be a better way for you to communicate with everyone, even the Weasley's," Remus said.

Harry nodded, knowing that he would prefer the members of the order visiting him twice a day, instead of hiding and never coming round as well as keeping all the information hidden from him. Harry knew that his relatives wouldn't like it at all, and his uncle would lash out at him for it, but he knew that it would be worth it, especially after he vowed to himself to report any acts of violence against him from his relatives. "But Remus, lets just keep it between us, there's no need for my relatives to know in advance of an inspection," Harry said.

Remus looked questioningly at Harry, but Harry didn't give him time to question him as Harry had rung the door bell. Harry did not want to be back here, and did not desire to meet with his relatives again but found himself reminded of his promise to the old headmaster that he would return. Harry remembered the visit from the headmaster the previous summer where he was whisked away by the headmaster after a meeting from his relatives, where he had to go and convince a former professor to return to the school, before going to the Weasley's for the rest of the summer.

The door was quickly opened by his aunt who looked scandalized at who was at the door. If looks could kill, the three of them would be more than dead at that point. Harry sometimes wished he was, then things would be a lot simpler for him but he always dismissed this quickly. He couldn't leave his friends with all the danger while he took the easy way out. It was not his way.

"Hello Aunt Petunia," Harry said, forcing cheeriness. Harry wanted things to be as friendly and as sociable as possible, as well as not having to be on constant alert of violence, which he knew that his uncle was prone to do from time to time. Even though Harry only suffered from bruising, he was not going to take it this time, and had vowed to contact the order the moment that it happened to see the order's reaction. That Harry would love to see.

"Don't Hello me, you ungrateful little brat, what the hell are you doing back here?" She spat in return. Like she could have forgotten why, Harry thought mutinously.

Remus and Tonks looked murderous. They both knew that Harry wasn't the most welcome with the Dursleys and that they weren't the most pleasant to him, but even this behavior shocked them into disrepute. They had always thought that Ron's stories had always been grown out of proportions. Even down to the bars on his windows but now they could actually believe it. They felt guilty for leaving Harry here, and wanted to take Harry to his proper family right away.

"You could try being civil for once," Tonks spat at her, which surprised Harry no end as he had only ever seen the happy and the depressed sides to Tonks but never her angry side. Harry knew that Tonks liked him, but he didn't realize that she cared this much too openly show this much hostility. Harry could tell that she must really care about this scruffy, black haired boy, who didn't live a normal life.

"Don't you dare take that tone with me freak, I don't have to take this brat if I don't want to," petunia argued. Yeah, Right, doubt you have thought this through auntie, Harry thought before deciding to argue back to her. Harry wasn't going to take this time of behavior this time.

"Well auntie, if I were to leave and never come back, then this house would be unprotected until the end of July instead of protected. That means that all of you would be in DEADLY danger," Harry emphasized, "If I stayed until my birthday, then left, then the death eaters probably wont come calling, but if I were to vanish suddenly, then they will be the first ones to call here." Harry said with a calm and collected voice that he had seen Dumbledore use from time to time.

Harry watched with satisfaction as the color drained quite literally from aunt Petunia's face as he was describing why he should be staying, even though it was the last thing he wanted to be doing. Harry knew that she wasn't going to be the overly friendly time to him this time, even though she never was; he still wanted to have a proper relative, and have a proper relationship with them, even though he was treated like dirt.

"Fine, go in and straight up to your room right now," Petunia snapped at Harry before turning on his guard. "You've delivered him safely so off you go before anyone notices."

Then Aunt Petunia closed the door in the face of the two order members, who wanted noting more than to hex her into oblivion, and to take Harry to the Burrow. They both knew how much Harry loved his time at the Burrow with his friends. Remus knew that Harry would love it more this summer, especially after he saw Harry slip a letter in to Ginny's pocket. Remus had used a quick spell to copy the letter into a memory pattern and he secretly put the memory to his head, where he reviewed it and found it to be a love letter.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Ron and Hermione visit before too long," Tonks observed.

"Or Ginny," Remus replied, surprising the Auror.

"How so, when they broke up?" Tonks asked, trying to get as much information out of her boyfriend as possible.

"Well Harry slipped a letter into Ginny's robes as we were leaving the platform and I copied it into a memory pattern and I found that it was a love letter begging Ginny to take him back and how much of a fool he had been. He had also put a charm on the letter to create a few hundred flowers in her bedroom," Remus said.

Tonks was surprised that Harry had realized his mistake with Ginny so quickly. She has been planning an ambush at the wedding to fling the two of them together but she now knew that they would be inseparable now.

"Well good for them," Tonks said, "I knew that they would end up together."

"Yeah but Harry's actions remind me more and more of James every time I see him and I'm just hoping that Harry does not go down the over bearing over protective route," Remus said, "'Cos it will drive Ginny insane and you know what her temper is like when she is angry. Besides, the potters have always gone for red heads and have always been rather dim about it too."  
"Unfortunately so about the anger," Tonks said, having remembered the arguments she had with Ginny when she pried too much into her mood. Tonks was also surprised about the red head comment. She didn't realize that all Potters had gone for read heads.

"But at least Ginny should be rather friendly now, especially with Harry in the room, I bet they won't be able to keep their hands off each other," Remus said, smirking.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they kept sneaking off together during the summer," Tonks replied, "We all know how strong their feelings are towards each other."

"Typical Teenage Love, I bet Mad Eye will go into hysterics about it if they keep vanishing," Remus said as the duo arrived at the end of Privet Drive, "I feel sorry about leaving him here every summer, but there's nothing I could possibly do."

"Don't worry, you can always show him Potter Manner when he turns seventeen, there's that to look forward to, even if he doesn't know about it yet, plus there's all those vaults of gold in the bank that are his too, even though I know that he won't want to use them, just imagine, us being good mates with the richest wizard in the world, who just happens to be the-boy-who-lived, that surpasses imagination doesn't it?" Tonks replied with a grin.

"Yeah, it does, but I'm worried about Harry's reaction, he's going to flip and big when he finds out that he has a mansion in his name, not to mention a few dozen living rooms full of galleons," Remus said, looking worried.

Tonks turned to face her boyfriend and put a hand on his shoulder. "You and Dumbledore signed a binding magical contract that neither of you would disclose anything about all this until he turned seventeen. The only thing he knows about his inheritance is the family trust fund that was set up in case his parents didn't make it, as well as the black family fortune, which, even though he knows about, he can't touch properly, or know the full extent of, until he turns seventeen. He will understand, don't worry, and besides, he will want somewhere to stay in case he does not want to stay full time at the burrow, or if he wants to escape for a few hours with Ginny," Tonks said impishly.

"You're right, but I can't help but worry, you know what he is like when information is kept from him, he gets so angry at times that he just lashes out at anyone, even friends, remember his fifth year at Hogwarts when he first came to headquarters and he lashed out at Hermione and Ron the moment he arrived at the place?" Remus reminded her.  
"Unfortunately, but Harry will understand once you explain everything fully to him, granted he will not be pleased about this secret, especially one that is so close to him, but he will finally accept it, and he will rely on you to help him with all his assets, like by giving him a full tour of the manor, no one else will know the layout or how to gain entry to the place with all the charms on the place, especially since Dumbledore himself could not get in and he was one of the most powerful, he will be safe there, just as safe as being at Hogwarts," Tonks reassured.

"Suppose, but right now we had better check in with headquarters, last one there is a sissy," Tonks said, quickly disaperating.

Remus chuckled. Tonks' behavior, even though it was sometimes rather childish, often made him feel better. He quickly turned on the spot, disaperating to HQ to where his girlfriend would tease him endlessly about arriving last, again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Unexpected Visitors

It had been just over a week since Harry had arrived at Privet Drive and life was already starting to get him down no end. The Dursleys were cashing in on Harry's last summer at their house by getting him to do all of the chores and odd jobs that needed doing around the house. Their rather long laundry list of tasks included replanting half the garden and weeding the rest. He was also expected to repaint the shed as well as all the window frames and the doors. In short, Harry was given an endless supply of manual work which would normally cost quite a lot of money to have done by professionals. As it was, Harry was getting it done for free, something which the Dursleys looked quite smug, no end about. Harry didn't mind all of the work as he felt that he needed to get into shape himself. Even though Harry had played six years of Hogwarts Quidditch, Harry still felt that his fitness could improve. It would give him more energy in the upcoming battles that lay ahead.

Harry didn't need to mention this to the Dursleys as they would only complain, and Harry often found himself preferring the silent treatments that he received from them to listening to them complained about one thing or another that was happening. Trying to find any way of blaming it on Harry was their favourite pastime, even though there was often no chance that Harry could be remotely involved. Such things included petty little things that were happening like cigarette stubs being found at the garden gate. Harry knew they were obviously left there by Dudley and his gang. But since Dudley's parents assumed that Dudley never did anything wrong, they could only conclude that it must have been Harry.

Even when they couldn't find any evidence to back it up, they'd still accuse Harry of doing the smoking. Harry tried to argue the fact that he'd not once stepped out of the front of the house apart from to do the front garden or to wash the car. The Dursleys didn't worry about such things as lack of evidence. This was Harry Potter, the "Freak". They found it quite easy to simply ignore his protests and began monitoring him at all times to make sure that he did not cause any damage. Harry, during the time that he wasn't doing chores, literally counted down the days until he could get away from Privet Drive and find his own place. He didn't want to be with the Weasley's all of the time, even though they were almost family to him, he desperately wanted to have a place he could call his own.

He loved living with the Weasley's but Harry was ready to live on his own, in his own place that he could own. Harry had sent a letter to Ron and Hermione a few days earlier to pass the time, and also to tell them that he was coping with the Dursleys but Harry had yet to hear from any of the Weasley's or Hermione. Even though Ron and Hermione had tried to convince Harry that staying with him at Privet Drive was a good thing, Harry had talked them round on the train to spend some real quality time with their families instead. He didn't know how long their mission would take and he wanted them to be able to say goodbye. Harry had also warned them on the train not to tell their parents anything yet until they had figured out exactly how to find the Horcruxes and Voldermort, otherwise there was no point in dropping out.

Keeping the plans secret seemed to relax Hermione and Ron no end as they were both worried sick about telling their parents that they were trading their last year of school for a dangerous and potentially fatal mission. Harry was worried, not that he hadn't heard from his friends, but that he hadn't heard from Ginny yet. Even if it was just a quick note telling him to sod off and to stay away from the burrow, it would have been reassuring to know she was okay. Harry knew that she needed time to consider what was happening but he was getting so nervous. Harry knew that she had to have opened the letter. A charm had activated a silent signal in Harry's trunk the morning after he arrived back home. Harry felt ashamed for what he'd done to Ginny. He'd broken up with her to keep her safe, but then realised that she was in just the same danger not being with him as she was being with him, so Harry let his heart win, for once.

Harry did have one thing on his side though. He had to check in with the order every morning and evening, which scared the Dursleys nearly to death. This forced the Dursleys to feed Harry with enough food as well as to keep his chores at an acceptable level. This pleased Harry no end as he knew the Dursleys would pile the chores onto Harry until he couldn't cope. That, however, didn't stop them from trying to get away with everything they could, though. On the eighth day of Harry being at the Dursleys, Harry woke to find the weather was perfect. There was not a cloud in the sky, and it was one of the sunniest days that Harry had seen in weeks. However, it was not stifling with heat, which Harry was grateful for. Quickly rising from bed, he headed for the shower. He knew that the order always arrived promptly at eight am, and Harry noted that it was already after seven. He knew that he needed to get ready quick to let the "inspector" in. It was a different order member practically every day, but Harry was waiting for the day that Mad Eye Moody arrived at the house to see how his relatives acted. Even though Harry was still receiving plenty of chores from his relatives, he was beginning to enjoy his summer.

Although he didn't have his friends to keep him company or a normal life like other teenage boys, he did have a deadly mission to complete - to find all the pieces to Voldermort's soul, destroy them and then take him on in a battle - where he knew he may die. Harry quickly had a shower and got dressed, before heading down to the kitchen. Harry glanced at the clock. 7.56 am it read. Four minutes, Harry thought, four Minutes until the fun begins. Looking over at his relatives, he found them trying to eat a normal breakfast but Harry could tell that they were worried about their visitor, and who it would be.

They quickly realised that the "Guard" would arrive at 8 am and 8 pm precisely regardless. Even if they didn't open the front door, they still gained entry within a matter of moments, which, Harry was pleased, to think, scared his relatives into submission. There was a sudden knock at the front door. Harry looked up quickly. "Let it be Moody," he thought with a smile. Harry got up and hastily went to the front door to let the order member into the house. There, standing at the door, was the scariest thing that Harry had ever seen. Harry literally went pure white at seeing the member there at the door. There, standing at the door was Aunt Marge, one of the vilest people on the planet, and a person that Harry never wanted to meet again. Harry wondered what had happened to the order member, as they had not arrived. "Move out of the way boy," Marge said, walking through the front door with Riper, leaving behind a rather heavy looking suitcase.

Harry jumped out of the way of the foreboding visitor and the dog that was also present. She strutted past him and into the living room, leaving the suitcase behind on the pavement. Harry groaned. He knew that he could barely control his temper around her, especially after what had happened last time to her during the summer after his second year. Harry didn't know what would happen, especially since the Ministry was after him to become their poster boy.

Harry stepped out of the front door, and looked up and down the street to see if he could see the order member approaching. Unfortunately, the street was empty and devoid of activity. No order members, no neighbors, nobody was there.

So, Harry went out and carried the suitcase into the house. Harry was correct, it was heavy, but Harry could easily carry it as he had plenty of strong muscles in his body, which he appreciated when he had to do chores. Harry deposited the suitcase at the bottom of the stairs and closed the front door, before returning to the kitchen to inform his relatives that Marge was in the living room. They thought that it was actually the order member who had come to call, and refused to go into the same room as the visitor. Harry sighed. Harry could see that whatever happened, they would find a way to blame it on him. So, Harry made a cup of tea for Marge, and took it to her, before retreating to his room upstairs, after depositing the suitcase in the guest room.

Harry shut his door and quickly went over to his desk and pulled some parchment towards him and inked his quill Harry was going to send a short encrypted note to a member of the order.

On the parchment, Harry wrote:

Emergency

The visitor that came during the summer before my third year has arrived back here and Dursleys think she is an "inspector" from you guys.

I may need some help here since there was no inspection this morning. Possible missing inspector

Prongs Junior

Since Harry had arrived back at the Dursleys, he had started going by the nickname of Prongs Junior.

Harry had told the order this as well as Ron and Hermione and Ginny so that he could write to them, as no one would know his name, especially if he wrote in code.

"Hedwig," Harry called, looking up at the bird cage. Hedwig looked up, before flying out of her cage and onto Harry's shoulder and held her leg out expectantly.

Harry tied the letter to her leg before saying "Take this to the nearest order member will you please? It's probably Mrs. Figg in the next street but Id prefer someone magical who can help,"

Hedwig hooted her acknowledgment before flying out of the open window and towards the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry sat down on his bed and rubbed his eyes. Harry hoped that if he carried on staying at Privet Drive, then he would be able to control his temper and not do any more accidental magic. Harry had already decided to leave Privet Drive a day before his birthday so he could not be attacked, but his birthday was still six weeks away, and he couldn't afford to leave before then, unless he knew that the burrow would be completely safe and that everyone, including Ginny wanted him there, otherwise he would rather spend his time at Privet Drive, alone, and with the risk of doing accidental magic.

Harry was barely in his room for ten minutes before he heard the sound of Apparition at the end of the street. Harry stood up and looked out of his window down towards the street. He saw the figure of Remus Lupin quickly heading towards the house. Harry quickly bolted out of his room and down the stairs before opening the front door slightly.

Harry always did a security check on every single order member that arrived at the house, even those he knew, so that he knew that they were not a spy or a death eater in disguise. Harry did not know whether someone in disguise would fool the wards that protected him, so he played it safe, especially after the headmaster had been killed by an ex member of the order. Remus Lupin quickly headed up the path towards the door when he saw that it was already open a crack, and there was Harry watching him with his wand at the ready. Remus slowly advanced with his hands away from the pockets. He already knew that this was going to happen, as every order member had reported the same response from Harry over the past week, but seeing it in person made it different.

Harry looked so different from when he last saw him. Harry had grown slightly, his hair was longer, but when Harry looked into his eyes, he saw death and pain, as though he had been on the front line of a vicious war for a very long time. In many ways, Harry had spent just as many years fighting Voldermort and Death Eaters as the average Auror. Remus never had the chance to study Harry when he brought him to Privet Drive so these characteristics were startling. Remus knew that Harry had seen more death than anyone would want a young man to see, but Harry had seen it anyway, along with all the violence and terror that goes with it. Remus could also see the dark bags under Harry's eyes and knew that Harry wasn't sleeping properly again, just like he had done when Sirius had died the year before, another unfortunate death that Harry had witnessed.

"Harry, I got your message from Hedwig," Remus said.

"OK, what did you promise to teach me just before Christmas of my third year?" Harry asked.

"I said that I would teach you a Patronus but it would have to wait until the New Year," Remus replied.

"OK, come in," Harry said, opening the door to allow his former professor inside.

"My Aunt Marge has shown up, it will be a disaster, I can't control my magic in front of her," Harry asked, as he closed the front door.

"Well, first, I have been ordered to deliver this note from a certain red head, then I am to ask you to pack your things and come to the burrow with me," Remus asked, handing over a letter with Ginny's handwriting on it.

Harry was extremely anxious. He had been waiting for Ginny to contact him since he gave her his letter at the platform, and now, here it is in his hands. Harry turned the letter over in his hands and opened the seal slowly. He was nervous, Very nervous. His ands were shaking as he opened the letter. Harry removed the letter from the envelope and slowly unfolded the paper before turning it over to read it.

Dear Harry,

Thank you for all of the flowers, they were wonderful, and extremely thoughtful of you. However, you really hurt me at the funeral, at the time I needed you the most. You ran away from me, all because of my safety. But at least you have finally realized that I am still in the same danger regardless of whether I am dating one of the most famous wizards of all time, who I just happen to love with all my heart.

I would love to be your girlfriend again, however, there are two conditions attached to this.

Never try to protect me again as I can look after myself.

Tell me everything. I know you are hiding something important, and I can help. That's what girlfriends are for – to help.

Please come and stay at the Burrow. I miss you so much that it's hurting me so much inside of me. I need to see you again and to be with you.

I love you so much,

Ginny

Harry had silent tears running down his face as he read the letter. He was back with Ginny. He would tell her everything the moment that he arrived. He knew that he still had to try to protect her, but he would try to restrain himself as much as possible. What more could she ask for?

"I'll just go get packing Remus," Harry said, before turning and heading up the stairs. Harry was so pre-occupied that he didn't see the large smile that was on the face of Remus. He already knew what was in the letter. Harry was extremely easy to read to Remus. He was more like his father than he ever knew.

Harry raced up to his bedroom and began packing faster than he had ever done before during the summer. That was because Harry usually only unpacked what he needed, which usually wasn't too much and this summer was the same, but he still found more of his belongings around the room than he thought possible. Harry checked his entire bedroom, from his wardrobe, to his desk, to the loose floorboard under the bed. Nowhere went unchecked in his room.

After fifteen minutes of packing, Harry had finished. Harry locked his trunk. Closed Hedwig's cage and locked the window. Harry had one last look around the room before lifting up his trunk and heading downstairs where Remus was waiting patiently.

Harry placed his trunk next to the door. "I'd better go say bye to them, before we head off," Harry said, nodding towards the kitchen, "Id also better try tell them again about Aunt Marge,"

"Shall I wait here for you?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, it'll only be a moment," Harry said, before heading to the kitchen.

"That freak in the living room gone yet?" Vernon asked the moment Harry had entered the Kitchen.

"It's no magical person, it's your sister," Harry retorted. "Go check," Harry challenged.

"I don't need to check, I know my sister would not visit unannounced," Vernon said, turning a rather deep shade of pink.

"Well it doesn't bother me anyway, since I'm leaving," Harry said, grinning, "I've had enough of your bullying and abuse that I'm sick of it so I'm going to be leaving right now,"

Petunia had paled. She knew that if he left, there would be no more protection on the house, and the family would be vulnerable.

"Never darken our doorstep again, Boy," Vernon threatened.

"Oh don't worry, I won't," Harry said, grinning, before heading towards the kitchen door.

"Good luck, Harry," Petunia said as he reached towards the door knob. Harry quickly spun around to look his aunt in the eye.

"Thanks, Aunt Petunia," Harry said, before heading out of the kitchen and into the hall ready to leave this house of oppression behind forever.

Remus turned as the kitchen door opened and saw Harry coming out of the door, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Remus knew that he must be overwhelmed with giddiness as he would be leaving this place and never coming back.

"May I assume that you are ready to leave here, FOREVER?" Remus asked a grinning Harry Potter.

"I sure am, just say the word and we can be off," he replied, picking up his belongings and looking at Remus expectantly. Remus smiled at Harry and headed to the front door and held it open for Harry and his belongings before allowing it to swing shut behind him.

Remus and Harry walked towards the end of Privet drive where it connected with Wisteria Walk, before Remus held out his wand hand to summon the knight bus. They quickly boarded and Remus shoved some money at the conductor before he could get going with his speech and said "The Burrow" before dragging Harry upstairs so that he could not recognize him.

"Right, well, it shouldn't take too long to get to the Burrow as not too many people use the knight bus any more," Remus said.

"Wouldn't it of been quicker for us to apperate there?" Harry asked, wondering.

"Well there are anti-appiration wards set up for five miles around the area. The bus will be able to apperate outside the field then drive up, which means that it would take the same amount of time to apperate than it would do to take the bus, plus the bus is far more relaxing in comparison to walking for five miles," Remus replied.

"Well I'm convinced," Harry said, grinning at him before looking out of the window.

After only a few minutes, there was another bang and they appeared on a country lane in the middle of nowhere. The lane looked very familiar to Harry, like the road near the Weasley's home, but that would be miles away from where they would have had to apperate.

"Ah looks like the ministry has adjusted he knight bus to apperate closer to the Weasley home," Remus said, exited.

"But that's unsafe isn't it," Harry whispered to Remus. "Wouldn't the death eaters find a way through?"

"Nope, Mad Eye came up with a custom ward for the burrow, and put in a special loop just for the knight bus, and for nothing else, even an imitation knight bus, but mad eye needed to cast a spell on the bus first," Remus said, "Means we will get to the Burrow quicker. But if a dark curse has been cast on anyone on the knight bus, or if they're a death eater, or if there is a death eater near the family of anyone who operates the knight bus then it won't get through, its a real difficult charm, Moody has been working on it for a few months but has finally cracked it,"

Harry smiled at this statement. The Weasley's were still safe but Harry had a desire to see just one Weasley first. Harry's smile grew as he thought of her and her letter.

"What's that grin for?" Remus asked, knowing full well that he was thinking about Ginny. Remus knew how to read James' face, and it amazed Remus that Harry had a lot of the same expressions that he had at the same age, even the one when he thought of the one he loved so dearly. Remus could see Harry's emotions so clearly on his face, especially how much he cared about Ginny. Remus was glad. Harry had finally found his perfect match, just like his mother and father, they were perfect too. Remus was surprised to see how much Ginny was starting to look like Harry's mother, even though Harry never picked up on this fact. He knew that there were many differences between them, like the color of their eyes, the freckles, and the hair and skin tone but apart from that, they were so similar. Warm, caring, loving, devoted, feisty, it was all there, the same spirit that had was with Lily was now in Ginny Weasley, and Remus could tell that she made Harry very happy when she was around. He had seen how his face had lit up after he had read through the letter from Ginny.

"Oh, just can't wait to get to the Burrow, that's all," Harry said, still grinning.

"To see a young red headed girl maybe?" Remus asked, watching Harry closely. The effect was instantaneous. Harry went a Gryffindor red. "Thought so," Remus chuckled.

Harry just mumbled a response while still blushing his famous red and just stared out of the window, refusing to meet the older man's eye. Remus knew from this expression that Harry's feelings for this young lady must be really strong, otherwise his blush would never have been so strong. Harry's father was exactly the same when it came down to blushes, they revealed everything, you just had to know how to read them.

Remus could sense wedding bells on the horizon for Harry and Ginny, and he was waging that Harry would ask her not long after the final battle. Just before Dumbledore had died, he had confided the entire story to Remus in case he did not come back on that evening. He told Remus everything that Harry and he were doing, about what Harry needed to do to destroy the evil Voldermort, about his Horcruxes and that Harry must be the one to kill him. This had scared Remus to the brink. He did not want Harry to have to do any of this, but he also knew that Harry would not let anyone stop him from doing this as he would feel that this was his destiny. Remus vowed to tell him everything once he had turned seventeen in a few weeks. He knew that Harry was more than likely to drop out of Hogwarts to finish this task and Remus could not let that Happen. He had even been talking everything through with Professor McGonagall to see if there could be any way that Harry could continue his education at school while continuing with his task. Professor McGonagall was going to think it over and come up with something, before getting back in touch with him. He had also warned her that he was more than likely to drop out and take Ron and Hermione with him (at their request, not his, he added) which seemed to tip the balance towards his favor. McGonagall had always trusted Harry Potter's judgment, even though it seemed far fetched at times, although she couldn't deny that he had been through so much, and always won. She thought back to all the things that Harry had been through while at Hogwarts. He had battled a Troll, two months into his first year, and come away with one more friend while having no injuries, he had saved the Philosophers stone from the Dark Arts professor at the end of his first year, after getting past all of the defenses that were designed to keep even the older students out of the area. She remembered that his second year did not lighten up either, remembering how he found out that he could talk to snakes, while everyone thought that he was the heir of Slytherin. He had managed to save Ginny and the school at the end of that year by killing the memory of Tom Riddle, as well as the snake that had petrified many students of the school. There had been so much happening to him and that was only the end of his second year, she mused. The third year, they saw the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban, and saw him try to get at the rat that Ron Weasley had kept as a pet. Harry watched as Sirius had dragged Ron into the Shreaking Shack and tried to kill the rat with Professor Lupin. Harry had saved the rat's life, which McGonagall knew had helped bring back Voldermort quicker. She also knew that Harry had regretted saving the life of him sometimes. She remembered how Harry had used Miss Granger's time turner to go back and save Hagrid's Hippogriff as well as his godfather without anyone suspecting that they had anything to do with it. Harry had been through more life threatening adventures during those three years than the rest of the students during seven years at Hogwarts. She remembered the following year when Harry had to go through the entire Tri-Wizard tournament, and win, only to watch the rebirth of Voldermort and to see a fellow student murdered. She knew that Harry had frequent nightmares about this, especially the summer after it happened. She remembered how Harry's fifth year had brought about a reunion with his godfather and how they had grown closer. She also remembered the illegal group that Harry had set up to help many students pass their O.W.L in DADA. Harry was a natural teacher, and she was sure that one day, she would be offering the post to Harry Potter, if he ever won the final battle. She was sure that he would be the best teacher in the subject and would raise the standards of the students considerably, as well as making the subject enjoyable. McGonagall then remembered the huge battle that had occurred at the end of the exams at the Department of Mysteries and how Harry had lost his godfather there. She also remembered that he had almost been killed by Voldermort again but was saved by Dumbledore and his actions. Even though harry had been possessed by Voldermort, Harry had managed to use his weapon (love) to drive Voldermort out of his body. Then McGonagall slowly recalled the previous school year where Harry had received private lessons from Dumbledore about Horcruxes (only she and Lupin knew about them) and how Harry had to be the one to destroy Voldermort. She had a feeling that Harry would not be back for his last year but her meeting with Lupin still shook her. She had been hoping that Hermione Granger could convince him to come back to school before she was put back in her place by Lupin reminding her that Harry was the one who led the group and Hermione and Ron were the ones that followed him, not the other way round. Lupin had told her that if Harry had wanted to go after Voldermort and his Horcruxes then Ron and Hermione would follow, even if Harry did not want them to.

After the meeting, she sat in the Head teachers office and thought about the situation for hours, and finally came to the decision to talk to Harry and make sure that he returned to Hogwarts, even going as far as to let him come and go as he pleased after lessons to hunt the Horcruxes. She knew that Harry was stubborn and would argue about this until he won, but she knew that she could use Gryfindor cunning to win him round.

Just as she was thinking this, Lupin and Harry were arriving at the Burrow, where the Weasley's awaited his arrival with much anticipation, especially the youngest Weasley.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Homeward Bound

The Knight Bus appeared along the dirt track that leads up to the Burrow. Harry looked straight ahead and saw one of the most welcome sights in the world – The Burrow. Harry's excitement grew along with his happiness. Harry and Remus quickly jumped up and headed downstairs with their belongings, however Harry was having a bit more difficulty carrying a Hogwarts trunk as well as an Owl cage.

They headed down to the ground floor as the bus edged closer to the burrow. The bus pulled up nearby as Harry and Remus arrived on the ground floor. They quickly disembarked and headed towards the back door and knocked three times. The door practically flew open to reveal Mrs. Weasley, who ran forward and pulled Harry into a bone crunching hug.

She quickly released Harry and looked him over, like any other time she met him to make sure that he was eating enough and taking care of himself. "Are you sure that you have been eating enough dear?" She asked once she saw how thin he had become in the past week and a half.

"Don't worry Mrs. Weasley, I've been eating just fine," Harry said, almost telling the complete truth, even though he knew Mrs. Weasley wouldn't believe him. Her look at him told him that she didn't believe him, but she didn't press him on it.

"Come in dear, I'm sure you didn't have time for breakfast this morning, so let me rustle you up something to eat," Mrs. Weasley said, almost dragging Harry and Remus into the kitchen.

She sat harry and Remus down at the table and started cooking something for them to eat. However, to Harry, something was not quite right. The house was very quiet. It was very different to the house he knew.

"Where is everyone, Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked, looking around the kitchen.

"They're all out and about, dear, Bill and Charlie are back in their old jobs, Percy is at the ministry of course, the twins are at their shop with Ron and Ginny is visiting Luna, but they all don't know that you are arriving today, they all think it is the day before your birthday, just in case you wanted to stay with your Muggle relatives instead of of coming with Remus," Mrs. Weasley said, placing a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him.

Harry tucked into his food eagerly as he was starved. Harry loved her food as it was always so delicious. Remus looked on watching Harry, waiting for him to finish his breakfast so that he could talk to him. Remus was one of the few people who knew the full mission of Harry, even though Harry did not know. It was only Remus and Professor McGonagall who knew the full mission. Remus had been told by Dumbledore the night before he was murdered, just in case he did not come back. Dumbledore told him that it was in case he did not come back, and was sure that Harry would never tell anyone nor ask anyone for help. Dumbledore was even sure that Harry would even drop out of school if Dumbledore died, taking Ron and Hermione with him. Dumbledore had even left a letter for Harry in case he died, talking Harry into accepting McGonagall's deal that she was going to make to him later today, after Remus had talked to him.

Harry quickly ate his breakfast and put his knife and fork on his plate, looked up and noticed that Remus was staring at him. "What? Have I got egg on my face or something?" Harry asked.

Remus smiled. Harry was so much like James. "No, no egg, but we need to have a talk though since you've finished your breakfast," Remus said, standing up. Harry followed Remus up from the table and headed into the living room, and Remus muttered a few spells so that Mrs. Weasley didn't overhear them before sitting down on the sofa and indicating to Harry that he should do the same.

"Harry, I know about your mission that Dumbledore set you, he told me everything the night before he died. Ive already filled in Professor McGonagall as Dumbledore told me to, and she is going to speak to you later about coming back to Hogwarts. She knows that you, Ron and Hermione are planning on dropping out to go after the Horcruxes, but she has come up with an alternative where you can stay at Hogwarts, keep doing all of your courses but she will allow you to leave the grounds at weekends to go hunting," Remus held up his hand to silence Harry as he was trying to interrupt. "I know only weekends sounds like hardly anything, but most of your task will be research anyway, so you may as well carry on with your education at the same time. All you need to worry about in the first instance is tracking them down when you have finished all your classwork and homework then once you have found them, go get them that weekend, before getting the item back to Hogwarts so you can destroy them. Dumbledore left you a book amongst other things in his will, and one of them is a book about Horcruxes and how to destroy them. The method is simple, just use basilisk venom. So Professor Slughorn is already acquiring a large supply to help destroy the remaining horcruxes. So basically, we are helping, and you are going to go back to school," Remus said

Harry looked like he was about to self destruct with anger. Remus knew that Harry could get angry with the best of them but now Remus was going to witness one of these angry moments first hand, and it looked like it was going to be one of those worse arguments.

"Why the bloody hell didn't you tell me sooner Remus?" Harry yelled, "You could have told me before today, you could have easily told me after the funeral or something, why wait until today to tell me?"

Remus sat there and let him yell his anger out at him. He knew that Harry needed to get this anger out if he was to start thinking rationally again.

"Harry, I was still getting over his death then myself, I know I should of told you right away, but you had shut yourself in the library for the two days after the funeral, before you headed back to Privet Drive. There was nowhere secure that I could of safely told you apart from here. But now we can work this through and get this mission completed, and finished." Remus said.

Harry sat there and glared at his former professor. He knew that Remus was right and that he could not have been told sooner without it looking suspicious but it didn't mean that he had to be happy about it.

"Is there anything else that you are hiding from me?" Harry asked, knowing that he was never told of the full story.

"Well I did warn Mrs. Weasley and the Granger's that the three of you did have a dangerous mission to complete and that you might not be at school but I have promised that I would try my best to get you back there." Remus said, knowing that Harry's anger would grow.

Unfortunately he was right.

"You WHAT!!" Harry yelled, jumping up.

"Harry, calm down, they don't know any of the details or anything, so there is noting that you need to worry about, it is perfectly safe. Now please sit down, we need to talk this through before Professor McGonagall gets here." Remus said sternly.

Harry reluctantly complied, still extremely annoyed about being kept out of the loop again by the members of the order. Harry understood the reasoning of his actions but he didn't like them one bit. They were in more danger because they knew. But Harry was grateful. He could get his friends back to Hogwarts and for them to be safe, as well as carrying on his mission. He also knew that Ginny would be safe there, and that he could carry on his mission that he had to do. Harry couldn't wait, even though this was going to be the toughest year that he had ever faced.

"Alright, so let me get this straight. All of us go back to Hogwarts, carry on with our education as normal, research these Horcruxes, and then go out at the weekend to track them down before bringing them back to Hogwarts to destroy them in a vat of Basilisk Venom?" Harry asked.

"Correct," Remus said, "Also, there will be an addition to yours, Hermione's, Ron's and Ginny's timetable as well: Combat Training against Dark Arts which is a NEWT course in itself, and will be taught by me, Tonks, Moody and Kingsley, and I will be teaching normal DADA too."

"Right, sounds like another fun packed year at Hogwarts then doesn't it," Harry said, thinking that he could be dead by the end of the school year.

Remus saw this look of doom on his face. He didn't like i. He had saw it once on the face of James once he had learned of the Prophecy.

"Harry, it will be OK, Love is your strongest weapon. Ive come up with a few ideas that I will go through with you during your first combat lesson," Remus said, knowing that his biggest advantage lay in the hands of a certain young red head that he knew that Harry was truly in love with, even though he knew that Harry didn't realize how much he loved her yet.

"So, you going to come back to Hogwarts with me?" Remus asked after several minutes of silence.

"Yeah, that's a compromise that I can live with," Harry said, looking at Remus.

Remus squirmed under his gaze, knowing that Harry would be even worse, anger wise, after his birthday, when he told Harry about his family fortune. He didn't know what to do about the situation.

"Right then, well I suggest that you take your trunk up to Ron's room and get settled in, before Professor McGonagall arrives," Remus said, standing up and canceling the spells that he put in place earlier.

Harry stood, and walked over to where his belongings where and began to take them upstairs.

He arrived at Rom's bedroom a few minutes later, after carting his heavy belongings up several flights of stairs. Harry was exhausted. The brightness of the bedroom didn't help, nor the amount of orange that was on the rooms. Harry put his trunk at the end of his bed, and opened up Hedwig's cage so she could fly, before lying down on the bed and drifting off into a deep sleep.

Several Hours Later

Harry is startled awake by someone entering the bedroom and heading over to him. Harry sits up, and puts on his glasses and looks up to see Remus looking back at him and smiling.

"The Professor is here Harry to speak to you about returning to Hogwarts," Remus said.

"Right, I'll be right down," Harry said, grabbing his wand of the bedside table.

Remus nodded, before headed out of the room leaving Harry alone in the room.

Harry stood up and studied his appearance. He made sure that his appearance was acceptable before heading down the stairs of the Burrow to where Professor McGonagall was waiting for him.

Four flights of stairs and two minutes later, Harry arrived at the ground floor of the Burrow and saw Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall sitting in the kitchen talking.

Harry slowly entered, knocking on the door announcing his arrival. They both looked up to where Harry was waiting. Mrs. Weasley smiled warmly at him, while Professor McGonagall gave a curt nod.

"Come sit down Harry, Ill make you a cup of tea," Mrs. Weasley said, standing up.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, walking fully into the Kitchen and sitting opposite from Professor McGonagall.

After a moment, Mrs. Weasley came back to the table and place a steaming mug of tea in front of Harry, who thanked her, before taking a soothing gulp of tea before returning the mug to the table. Harry then looked up expectantly at Professor McGonagall for her to start to speak.

After a few moments, she finally started speaking.

"Harry, have you given any thought to my offer about returning to Hogwarts to finish your final year?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes I have, I have decided to return for now, as long as I can carry on looking for the Horcruxes at weekends and am still allowed to leave Hogwarts to go hunt for them," Harry said.

"You will be, Harry, and I will support you whole heartedly in this, as long as you keep on top of all your work, including homework, and make sure it is up to the highest standard that I expect from all of you, instead of slacking off to carry on with the Horcruxes. Don't forget that it is still your most important year at Hogwarts, regardless of what else is going on, so make sure that you don't forget that, and make sure that you pass it onto Mr Weasley and Miss Granger," McGonagall said, staring at Harry.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure I will," Harry said, reassuring his old transfiguration professor. Professor McGonagall nodded at Harry, before standing up, and giving her farewells to him and Mrs. Weasley. Harry picked up his mug and finished his tea with Mrs. Weasley. It was then that he noticed that Remus was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did Remus vanish to Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked.

"He needed to head over to Diagon Alley to pick up some potion ingredients for his Wolfesbane potion, he and Professor Slughorn refined it so that he only needed to take it on the two nights before he transforms, instead of the whole week, but he can only get the ingredients just before the potion is needed as they go off rather quickly," Mrs. Weasley said.

Harry nodded, before draining the last of the tea out of his mug, standing up and washing his mug in the sink. Mrs. Weasley tried to insist that she do it for him but Harry refused to listen to her and done it himself.

"Are you going to be this stubborn all summer, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked, with her hands on her hips. Harry thought that she looked quite formidable but Harry knew that he must stand his ground.

"Yep, I want to help as much as I can Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, returning her gaze.

"Well you're a guest here, I can't ask you to do chores," Mrs. Weasley argued.

"OK then, heres a deal for you Mrs. Weasley, how about I help with the cooking? Ive been cooking full meals for well over ten years, so I'm sure that I can be of some use to you," Harry replied.

Mrs. Weasley looked unsure about the offer.

"Come on Mrs. Weasley, I need to keep in practice, I never get the chance at Hogwarts to keep up to date with my cooking skills, even if its not all the time, I want to help," Harry said, trying to convince her.

"OK, you can help with dinner if you're sure," Mrs. Weasley said, trying stop Harry from doing too much work.

"Well I am sure, and I'm happy to help," Harry said.

After a few minutes, Harry said farewell to Mrs. Weasley and headed upstairs to unpack some of his things.

Harry was beginning to enjoy this holiday.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Surprises at Home Time

It was mid afternoon and Ginny was still visiting Luna's place where she lived alone with her father. She had spent most of the day doing her summer homework with Luna but now that she had finished, her thoughts were drifting towards a raven haired boy with deep green eyes, where she would often find herself drowning, and would turn her knee's to jelly.

She was thinking back to when they were dating at school, before Dumbledore had died and found herself thinking about him and their time at Hogwarts. She couldn't believe that she used to date Harry Potter, who was the man of her dreams.

She remembered how Harry used to act around her, and how shy he always acted, even after when he had kissed her in the common room n front of the entire house. She wondered how Harry could be very shy with her, when Harry was such a helpful person who would stand up in front of an armada of death eaters and their evil snake eyed leader without any hesitation, worry or fear, and here he was all shy and tongue-tied around her.

Ginny soon realised that Harry didn't know how to express his feelings towards her, and did not know what couples did to show affection. She had decided to take matters into her own hands and teach Harry how to show his feelings.

She had started by holding his hand everywhere they went. In the common room, in the corridors, in the great hall, everywhere. Harry was startled by this at first and was rather reluctant to take the lead, but soon started to take hold of her hand as soon as they both came together, either at the start of the day, breaks or at the end of the day. Soon Harry was holding her every time they were together. Ginny loved being held by Harry. It made their relationship seem more real to her, instead of being part of a dream where she could wake up at any second.

Slowly, their relationship grew. Their relationship moved up from holding hands, to kissing when they met. Their passion for each other was rising. Slowly, but surely. Soon she was being kissed senseless by Harry, which she enjoyed, and was rather exited about experiencing. She had dreamed about kissing Harry and there it was, happening to her – her dreams were slowly coming true.

They spent all of their free time together, holding hands, kissing, snogging, exploring each other. Their feelings for each other were growing with intensity every day, something that was driving both Ginny and Harry mad since they were teenagers and unable to control their teenage hormones.

All of this bliss, though, was shattered one afternoon, shortly after the death of the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry had told her at the end of the ceremony that he couldn't be with her because Voldermort would make her do things if he knew that Ginny and Harry were going out.

It broke her heart into a thousand pieces after he had told her those words, even though she had predicted that she was more than likely to hear them, after they all found out about the death of the headmaster. She had even confided in Hermione who, unfortunately, even though she tried to reassure Ginny, was not quite believable as she too knew that Harry would probably act like this.

Then, barely a few days later, when she arrived home at the Burrow, she had found a letter that was from Harry in her pocket. It had not been in there when she got off the train as she had her hands in her pockets just after she had gotten off the train. She wondered how Harry had gotten the letter into her pocket without her noticing that he was close. She thought that she had sensed him walk up to her then walk away, but she had dismissed it, as if her mind was playing tricks on her again, but then, the more she remembered, the more she realized that she was beginning to sense Harry's presence when he approached, even if he did not make any sound that she could hear. She remembered back when she was still dating Harry, and remembered many times when she was in the common room and she would some how sense Harry, look up to see him walking into the room. She had always dismissed it as hearing him, even slightly, which made her look up but the more she thought about it, the more she knew that she was right about this.

Ginny thought hard. She seemed to remember something in one of her books about two people being able to sense each other across a distance, bu she could not remember the details. It was really annoying to her as her memory recall was normally just as good as Hermione's, but Ginny did not make the mistake of using it blatantly in front of everyone letting them know that she had brains. She knew that the Weasley's all had brains, but it depended on how they used them. She knew that even the twins had brains, to come up with such a feasible business idea and keep coming up with so many new and interesting product lines every day.

Suddenly it struck her. She had read loads of books after her first year about the mind to see if she could find anything about how Tom Riddle had taken control of her and she had read a chapter in one of those books about lover's links. She never really took it all in completely and found a lot of it hard to recall but Ginny decided to research at the school library about Lovers Links.

Ginny was suddenly broken out of her thoughts by Luna. "You're away with the fairies," Luna said, solemnly, "They're known to steal your memories for a few hours since they don't have much of a life."

Ginny was used to all these random statements from Luna so she didn't laugh as much as she used to. "Don't worry Luna, Im still here," Ginny replied, "Nearly finished all your homework?"

"Nearly, only got two more pieces to do then Im done," Luna replied, looking up from her Herbology essay.

"Right, well Luna, I need to get going and head back home before dinner, so I'll see you soon," Ginny said, gathering up all of her belongings and packing them away.

Ginny stood and headed over towards the fireplace, where Luna was waiting to say goodbye.

"Don't forget to owl and to visit," Luna said, giving Ginny a hug.

"I won't," Ginny said, before grabbing some floo powder and heading home.

Ginny arrived home almost instantly. She slid out of the fireplace right into the living room, where she stood up and brushed all of the soot off of her before heading into the kitchen where her mother was, and she predicted, cooking dinner. Her mother's habits around the home were so predictable that she could think for a moment, at any time day or night, and know where her mother was, and she was 99 of the time correct in her assumptions.

There was her mother, standing at the stove, boiling a kettle full of water. She was making afternoon tea. Her mother looked up and saw Ginny in the doorway.

"Good afternoon Ginny dear, how was your day at Luna's?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Oh it was fine, got quite a lot of my homework done, three out of my eleven essays that were set so I only have a few left to do since Ive been working on them all for the last week," Ginny said, entering the kitchen and sitting at the kitchen table. Something was amiss. She could sense it. Something was different with her mother. She was happier, more in her element.

"Anything happened while I was away, mum?" Ginny asked her mother, innocently.

"Oh nothing too much, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said, obviously trying to hide something from her daughter.

"Oh? You sure?" Ginny asked again.

"Yes I'm sure, Ginny Dear, just the arrival of Harry," Mrs. Weasley, mentioned, hoping that her daughter wouldn't immediately pick up on it.

Almost disastrously, Ginny had been taking a sip of the hot tea that Mrs. Weasley had placed in front of her moments earlier and ended up spraying it across half of the kitchen.

"WHAT!! Thanks for telling me mother," Ginny said, "Now where is he?"

"Upstairs, he had nodded off on his bed, he looked so tired when he arrived, so I left him there to catch up on his sleep, but I think that even that yell might of woken up since Harry is a light sleeper," Mrs. Weasley said

Almost on cue, Harry walked in with his wand drawn and wide eyed.

"What was all the yelling," Harry asked, without lowering his wand.

"Oh mum forgot to mention that you had arrived here and I kinda lost it. Sorry for waking you Harry," Ginny said, glaring at her mother.

"Well no harm done," Harry said, lowering his wand, and trying to calm down both of them, "If I had slept much longer, then I wouldn't of been able to get to sleep later."

Ginny then properly realized that he was standing there in the flesh, stood up and headed over to him. She glanced at him, up and down and he looked worse than ever. He looked like he had lost all the weight that he had put on during his last year at Hogwarts, and he had dark rings under his eyes, that were big, dark and intimidating. It looked like Harry hadn't slept at all since Dumbledore's death. He looked simply terrible. The toll of having a manic wizard after you for all of your life was showing quite visible on Harry.

However, Ginny knew what she needed to do, and knew that it would hurt Harry slightly and would make her mum go into anger mode big style, but Ginny also knew that if she were quick enough then all her mum's anger would be avoided.

"Ive got two things that you need to know right now Harry Potter," Ginny said with warning in her voice. Harry, at that point knew that something bad was about to happen to him, and not even Mrs. Weasley could save him.

Without any warning, Ginny slapped him hard across the face. "That was for breaking up with me, you idiotic teenage boy," She said with such menace in her voice, that Harry was actually scared for his life.

Mrs. Weasley looked like she was about to go into full rage mode from what her daughter had done to this young man, even though she would have done the same thing in the same situation.

"However, this is for getting back with me," Ginny said, before putting her arms around Harry's neck and kissing him passionately on the lips.

Harry was stunned. One moment, he was being slapped by a girl and she was now snogging him senseless. Harry kissed her back before realizing that Mrs. Weasley was staring at them, so he quickly broke the kiss before turning a dark shade of red. It was one thing to have your best mate witness you kiss his sister, it was something else to have the girl's mother watch you kiss.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled to Mrs. Weasley turning scarlet, which only made Ginny and Mrs. Weasley start to giggle.

"Harry, you are allowed to kiss your girlfriend you know," Ginny stated, trying to look stern, but failing miserably.

"Come on Harry, lets go in the living room and you can fill me in on your summer," Ginny said, taking Harry by the hand and leading him quickly in the living room before her mother could intervene.

Ginny quickly led a still glowing Harry into the living room where they both say on a comfortable sofa in front of the fire.

Harry was nervous, and still quite red, but Ginny was very normal and waiting for Harry to calm down after their encounter in the kitchen.

She knew that she had embarrassed him on a huge scale, but she knew that Harry needed to express his emotions towards her more, which involved kissing her in public. She knew that Harry had gotten over some of his shyness over expressing his feelings, as she saw during the last term of school, but now that he was here, he needed to learn more about expressing feelings, even if she had to spend the next few years teaching him.

Damned those Dursleys, Ginny thought as she gazed over at Harry who was staring at the warm fire.

"So, come on Harry, how were your eight days of summer?" Ginny asked, trying to diffuse the situation and to get Harry to open up.

Harry just stared into the fireplace for several moments before replying.

"Rather fun actually," Harry said, "Plenty of chores to do of course, but with the loverly inspectors that I had visit twice a day, the short stay was rather pleasant compared to other years."

"I heard a rumor about those inspectors but no one would tell me anything of course, who was it?" Ginny asked, desperate for more information. Harry could tell that she was hungry for order information and smiled at her interesting interrogation.

"Well it was a different order member at each inspection. Of course I knew them all, especially after a loverly incident with an order member I hadn't met before on my second day home, as I had decided to check the identity of each member who arrived, so I nearly hexed the order member when she tried to force her way in, but of course, she eventually took the hint and sent Charlie over instead to inspect the place. He couldn't keep a straight face during the entire visit, after of course I had lowered my wand from between his eyes," Harry said.

"You nearly hexed Charlie?" Ginny asked, wondering why he would do such a thing, and going off track slightly.

"No way, I nearly hexed the woman who arrived before Charlie because I didn't know her and she tried to force her way in so the neighbors didn't see, Charlie actually gave me the least trouble, apart from his constant snorting at random intervals," Harry explained.

"Sounds like Charlie, that does, he can never keep a straight face, even when its needed," Ginny said, rolling her eyes at her brothers behavior.

"Well he actually scared my aunt and uncle the most when he showed them some of the slight burns he got from dragons, and by telling them what his pet dragon could do if he brought it to visit next time," Harry said, trying to hold back laughter but failing.

Ginny joined in, knowing how much Charlie loved winding the Dursleys up as much as the rest of her twin brothers, who were as much into their jokes as they always were. Despite the fact that Charlie did not have a pet dragon, nor was there even a dragon in Britain, the looks on the Dursleys faces would have been priceless, in Ginny's opinion.

"Too bad I missed that, I would have loved to have seen their faces," She said, gasping for breath.

"Yeah, I wished I had taken a picture as the blood drained out of their face, if they were any more pale then they would of made the milk look off," Harry said, causing Ginny and himself to crack up again in laughter.

Mrs. Weasley, who was still in the kitchen heard all of the laughter coming out of the Living Room ad smiled. It was good that Harry was laughing again, and that he was happy. It was good, in her opinion, that Ginny and Harry made each other Happy and she was predicting that Harry would be asking Ginny to marry him before the end of the school year.

She knew very well that her daughter and Harry were too young in her opinion to Marry but she knew that they were in love with each other and that Harry was completely devoted to Ginny and that Ginny was devoted to him. She could see that on their faces every time the other walked into the room, even before Harry realized his feelings for Ginny, he still had the need to protect her with his life.

Mrs. Weasley was surprised that it had taken Harry so long to realise his feelings towards Ginny. But she suspected that he had taken after Ron and shared Ron's brotherly feelings for Ginny for a while, before discovering his own feelings for her only daughter.

Mrs. Weasley looked at the clock. It was late afternoon and she knew that Ron would be home soon and that he would be desperately after something to eat after a long day at work at the store. She knew that her twin boys were working Ron to the bone, but she also knew that they were paying Ron quite more than he would earn at a different shop for the same work load so she could not complain. Plus she knew that he would be able to show his affections towards Hermione more if he had more gold to spend on her, especially at Christmas.

She could see her son's feelings towards his female best friend. They were so obvious on his face. It was only a matter of time, in everyone's opinion that they both realized that their feelings were beyond friendship and were of the romantic variety. Even Harry had noticed, and that was normally saying something, in regards to feelings.

She was suspecting that there would be more than one set of wedding bells in the air before long, and she could not be more happy for them.

At that moment, the fireplace roared its green flames and Ron emerged on the Kitchen floor, coughing up soot, before rising to his feet and cleaning himself up. He kissed his mother in greeting before turning and slowly heading out of the kitchen to get changed.

"Before you head upstairs Ron, there is someone in the living room who is waiting for you to say Hello," Mrs. Weasley said, briefly stopping her food preparations.

"Oh Mum," Ron moaned, "Can't this wait?"

"No it most certainly can not," Mrs. Weasley snapped back, "Now get in there and say Hello before I drag you in there by your overly long hair young man!!"

Ron left the kitchen at top speed right into the living room where Ginny and Harry were waiting for Ron to make an appearance after hearing the exchange in the kitchen.

Ron was glancing over his shoulder at his mother, who had returned her gaze back to the cooking and did not notice Harry and Ginny staring at him, grinning.

"So Ron, did you have something to say to me?" Harry asked innocently, which made Ron turn his head round so fast, you could hear his neck crack.

They all winced at the sound.

Ron grabbed his neck and massaged his neck.

"Harry!!" Ron almost yelled, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Well I thought I would drop by early, if that is OK Ron," Harry asked, "But I could go back to the Dursleys for a few more weeks if you wish and then come when it's more convenient for you."

"No, no, no," Ron said quickly, knowing that his mother would have his head if Harry left.

Harry caught onto this. "Nervous about something, Ron?" Harry asked.

"No, no, I'm fine," Ron spluttered, before quickly heading out of the room and up to his bed room to get changed, leaving a chuckling couple in the living room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Surprises at dinner time

A few hours later, everyone started to gather for dinner. It wasn't ready yet so people were gathering in the living room and were talking happily together until they could all go and eat.

Remus had not long arrived back from his shopping trip in diagon alley for all his potion materials, but didn't have to start brewing the potion until the day after, so had allowed himself an evening off, which he usually done, before the potion making and transfiguration evenings started again.

Hermione had arrived an hour before and was spending a lot of her time with Ron in whispered discussions.

"Oh I forgot," Harry remembered suddenly, "I forgot to tell Ron and Hermione about the deal with McGonagall and going back to Hogwarts," Harry said to Ginny before heading over to two of his best friends who were sitting very close in the corner of the room.

"Hey Guys," Harry said as he approached.

Ron and Hermione looked up with a start.

"Hey Harry," They both replied in unison.

"That's really scary, do you realize that?" Harry asked, teasing his best friends, who just happened to be dating.

"What is?" Ron asked, confused.

"Saying the same things at exactly the same time," Harry replied, making Ron blush slightly.

"Well you and Ginny were like that when you were dating at the end of last term," Hermione pointed out, causing Harry to blush slightly.

"Well not to change the subject or anything, but Ive got two things to tell you both," Harry said.

"Which are?" They both said together again.

"First, Ginny and me are back together. I was being a complete fool, and asked her to forgive me which she did, and secondly, Professor McGonagall came by this morning and gave us an offer where we can go back to Hogwarts to carry on our seventh year there and she would let us out of the castle at weekends, under the cover story of receiving Magical Law training for a possible career in the future, but our actual Magical Law training will all be done through textbook during the week so we have free weekends," Harry said.

They both stared at Harry like he had gone mad. They were going back? They were taking an extra subject?

"How can we fit it all in though Harry? We were barely fitting it all in last year," Ron said, thinking he would fail absolutely everything. He was no know-it-all like Hermione who could probably pass this magical law enforcement course right this second.

"Should be simple enough, we compress all of our school work including our Magical Law subject into the weekdays, then the weekends we can carry out our mission, with the help of the order, then we should get it all sorted, all we need to do is to plan out our time effectively," Harry said.

Ron snorted in disbelief.

"Harry's right," Hermione agreed. "The number of subjects we take, we can easily do all the homework and completion of classwork during the week, but we would have to use the weekends in the two or three months ahead of our NEWT's so that we can revise properly, but otherwise it's possible.

Ron gaped at his girlfriend. "My brain will melt if we do that Hermione," Ron pleaded.

"Don't be stupid Ronald," Hermione frowned, "Brains don't melt, and thats assuming you have enough of them to begin with,"

"It's not like Magical Law is a hard subject Ron," Remus interjecting, "Plus it will be over the whole school year instead of crammed into its usual three month time frame."

At that precise moment, Mrs. Weasley called everyone into dinner, so the famous couple had to stop their bickering, much to the dis-appointment of everyone else in the room, who enjoyed hearing and witnessing a Ron-Hermione argument.

Everyone quickly filed out of the living room and into the kitchen where an enormous meal filled the table for everyone to eat.

Everyone quickly found a seat. Ron sat next to Hermione, who sat opposite Harry and Ginny.

The quartet quickly served themselves with the food that they wanted and tucked in. None of them had realized how hungry they actually were until now, as they had all been distracting each other with conversation.

There were all kinds of food laid out for them. Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Chicken and boiled potatoes, steaks, burgers.

There were several conversations happening around the table all at once. People were taking turns to swap between conversations when an interesting topic came up. Current business of the order, what the death eaters might be planning, who the new professors at Hogwarts might be (they were predicting several members of the order filling vacancies) as well as what subjects Ginny might choose, and everyone giving advice as to which courses she was going to take.

Without warning, harry felt a funny feeling cross his mind. It wasn't his scar that was hurting, it was more like a headache then no headache.

"Whoa," Harry said, raising a hand to his temple.

Hermione, Ron and Ginny all looked at Harry with concern. They knew that he didn't go through pain unless it was bad.

"What was," Harry said before another wave of pain, before Harry felt like he had been released from something.

Harry quickly opened his eyes to find everyone staring at him.

Harry felt fine and was going to tell them that he was OK and not to worry.

"Jyst ben boeni, namyn 'i ddirwya awron," Harry said in Welsh (Just a headache, but it's fine now)

Everyone looked at Harry like he had gone mad.

"paham ydy pawb yn edrych ar 'm cara a achos?" Harry asked (Why is everyone looking at me like that for?).

"Harry, why are you talking like that?" Hermione asked, wondering if her best friend had finally cracked.

Harry just looked at Hermione like she was talking gibberish.

"paham gyboli?" Harry asked. (Why are you talking nonsense?)

Everyone looked at Harry like he had cracked, while he was returning the same expression.

Remus, however, was deep in thought, like he was trying to recall a piece of information.

"Ydy rhywun yn cerdded at gwna rhywbeth at chyfnertha?" Harry asked (Is someone going to do something to help?)

Remus then clicked his fingers, before withdrawing his wand and pointing it at Harry.

"Lingua Omnimodus Reddo" Remus said clearly, and a white beam came out of his wand and engulfed Harry.

Several moments later, the light vanished.

"You OK, Harry" Remus asked.

"Yeah, fine Remus, but what happened to me? Everyone was speaking gibberish," Harry explained.

"Well so were you to us Harry," Hermione said.

"Actually he wasn't Hermione," Remus explained, "He's actually speaking his native language, which is Welsh."

They could all see Harry's anger rise on his face. They all knew that he was about to explode at Remus.

Harry forced calm into his voice. "Why didn't you tell me?" Harry asked, in a strained calm voice.

"Well Harry, I signed a magical contract with your father so that I couldn't say anything unless either the charm broke or unless you were to have a child, then I could reveal the family curse," Remus explained.

"Family curse?" Everyone repeated.

"Yep, one heck of a curse, but it does have certain advantages," Remus explained, "Harry, you had better brace yourself for this first."

Harry braced himself for what Remus was about to tell him.

"OK, well in the Potter family, there is a little genetic defect that messes up your language center. It doesn't allow any Potter descendant to learn English, either to hear it or to speak it or to read it. It'll look like gibberish to them. However, there is a charm that was developed by one of your distant descendants that allows you to speak, read and listen to English, and suppresses your welsh abilities. There is an advantage when the charm is reapplied though as it just was as it allows you to not only speak English but it allows you to be able to translate any other human language, which you will be able to use during the wedding with Fleur's relatives who can't speak very good English. It will act very much like your Parseltoungue and automatically switch your language and you will be able to understand it normally," Remus explained.

"So, let me get this straight, I can understand any language now because of this charm, but I can't naturally learn English, it's all just gibberish?" Harry asked.

"Correct," Remus said, "It all kinda balances itself out really."

"Kinda balances itself out?" Harry asked angrily, "What if I had been half way across Europe on my mission and the curse broke? What would of happened then?"

Remus knew that Harry was extremely angry so he knew that he had to stay calm and collected so that Harry would calm down quicker.

"Well I'd think that Ron and Hermione would have had enough sense to contact head quarters so that it could be sorted out," Remus replied simply.

Harry opened and closed his mouth several times to retort, but ended up remaining silent. Harry then looked down at his plate and continued eating in silence, without meeting anyones eye or saying anything to anyone.

The rest of the meal passed in relative calm and quietly. The disturbance that had occurred seemed to have sobered everyone up, and all the impromptu joyous festivities seemed to have ended.

After desert, Harry quickly excused himself and headed upstairs to Ron's room and sat on the bed and just stared at the floor. What a time for Remus to drop a bomb shell on him. How could they conveniently forget to mention that he had a spell on him all these years and he was never told about it. Harry found that he couldn't really be angry at Remus though as he had only been told by Harry's father if he promised not to tell unless the charm needed to be put back on a Potter, and Harry knew that Remus would rather die than to break a promise to James Potter.

Ginny stood up to follow but both Hermione and Ron tried to stop it. Ginny glared at them both. She knew that they knew best sometimes with Harry's moods, but she also knew that red heads also had an affinity for controlling Potter males.

"I dont think you should go up there Ginny, he is going to be in an absolutely foul mood tonight," Ron warned.

"Don't worry, I'll be OK, red headed women usually are safe from Potter's," Ginny said, before exiting the kitchen after Harry.

"What did she mean by that?" Ron asked the room, wondering what on earth his sister meant.

"The second Potter curse," Remus said, "One family curse that Harry had best not find out about."

"Which is?" Ron inquired, wondering where this was leading.

"All Potter males have a soft spot for red heads, and more often than not, fall in love with a red head, marry a red head, and have a family with one, Harry's family history shows that. His mother, grand mother, and great grand mother all had dark red hair, just like Ginny, but not only that, they all share quite a lot of the same characteristics, such as temper, determination, brains, loyalty, as well as a few others. But they all also fall in love while at school, usually during sixth or seventh year, and are more than likely married within a year or so after finishing, but its not as though Harry would follow that through," Remus explained.

"So let me get this straight for reference, Harry can't speak a word of English, can't understand or learn English, has to rely on a translation charm which will now translate all human voices into the same language which Harry can understand, and will be able to automatically speak in the same language back to that person, plus has a family trait which means that he will fall in love with a red headed witch who has more temper than a lion," Ron said, flabbergasted.

"Correct, although there was a great great great uncle who didn't follow through with the potter curse, but only because he was gay though, so he fell in love with a red headed wizard called Boris from Ireland, moved there and lived happily ever after, but without any children to follow the line, obviously," Remus said.

Meanwhile, Ginny made her way upstairs to Ron's room. She knew that Harry was pissed off more than anything and that he would more than likely flip and shout and get all angry, but she knew that once he had his temper tantrum, then he would calm down, and they would be able to talk it through.

Ginny stood outside Ron's door wondering how to proceed. She knew that Harry had strong feelings for her but she knew that he was still going to be very angry at her. How was she going to calm him down? Perhaps he was already calm. Perhaps he was crying. Perhaps perhaps perhaps.

Ginny knocked on the door and waited for an answer. None came from within the room. Ginny knew that Harry was being his stubborn self and she knew that she couldn't go on egg shells around him, regardless of what happened, so she opened the door and walked into the room to see Harry sitting there on the bed, staring at the floor.

Ginny quickly closed the bedroom door and headed over to Harry and sat next to him.

She took hold of his hand and laced her fingers through his, waiting for Harry to lead the conversation.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Harry spoke.

"How come everything always happens to me, Ginny?" Harry asked, "Its always me that has these things dumped on my shoulders, instead of someone else."

Ginny was slightly taken aback my his calm tone.

"Well, maybe its just the way life goes, one thing leads to another, but at least it wasn't anything bad this time, you have a family charm which you can use, so you have a universal translator in your head, there will be many that would be envious, and I know, you never asked for any of this, and you would be plain old Harry but life aint worked out that way sadly, but at least you got me to help you through," Ginny said, squeezing Harry's hand.

Harry looked up, and saw Ginny staring back at him. He looked into her eyes and saw complete love there. She loved him!! he could see it in her eyes. He knew that his feelings were just as strong but he needed to express them.

Ginny stared back into his eyes and saw the same love in them that she felt for him. She knew that she loved Harry but she could see in his eyes how much he loved her. Harry Potter was in love with her!! She wanted nothing more than to jump up and down, before sitting on his lap and kissing him passionately but she knew that Harry would continue to kick himself about this if she didn't sort it out.

"Well this aint anything bad to worry over Harry, I know Remus will teach you the incantation to use in case it fails again or when we have a family together," Ginny said.

"When we have a family?" Harry asked startled, "I never really thought that far ahead cos of this damned prophecy."

Ginny felt sorry for Harry, but she darned show it as she knew that Harry hated people feeling sorry for him.

"Well, perhaps you should think about it, get your hopes up a little, it might help you get through this mess cos I know it helps me when I think about what could happen when we win this war," Ginny said, seeing what Harry would say.

"I can't get my hopes up or anyone else's in case I loose," Harry said, quickly raising his hand to silence Ginny as she was about to protest, "It's a real possibility that I do loose, its not even a 50 – 50 fight yet cos he's still very powerful, but if all goes well in the next year then we might actually have that future Ginny."

"Is that the optimistic side of Harry Potter coming out?" Ginny said, half teasingly.

"Maybe," Harry teased backed, before kissing Ginny on the cheek.

"Definitely," Ginny said before taking Harry in a huge hug and kissing him fully on the lips.

A short while later, Ginny led a happier Harry back downstairs to where everyone was sitting in the living room listening to the Wizarding news on the Wizarding Wireless Network.

It contained plenty of regular news which included updates on the war (most of which they already knew, thanks to the order) as well as some standard news that would be common in both the Wizarding world as well as the Muggle world, and included things like famous people getting married, but one unique thing, which led to Harry's embarrassment was a new section of the news dedicated to Harry Potter, all about him, what he was doing at the minute, rumors about him and all the rest. This caused quite a chuckle as Harry grew redder and redder and redder as the section went on, and got quite worrying at one point for everyone as Harry seemed to go past the color red and into even darker colors, thanks to the amount of embarrassment that he was feeling about being on the radio.

Harry wanted to bolt from the room, but Ginny was keeping a firm grip on his arm, much to everyone else's amusement as they all knew that Harry would never hurt Ginny, not even so that he could run out of a room.

Thankfully for Harry, the section of the show was very short, only 10 minutes long, so after it had finished, Harry could slowly relax and return to his normal color, which took nearly an hour, considering the amount of hot blood that was pumping through his skin, making him turn the darkest red known to man kind. Not even Ron, in Ginny's unspoken opinion, had ever turned that red through embarrassment and that was even with everyone's teasing.

The rest of the evening seemed to pass in a blur for everyone. They were all talking about light hearted subjects, mainly to pass the time and to keep everyone's spirits high. Everyone talked, played chess, listened to the radio.

At one point, Harry had even gotten into a rather deep conversation with Mr Weasley about Muggle technology where he was telling Harry about his ambition to invent something that wizards could use to make electricity to be able to run Muggle technology. Harry, rather stupidly, opened his mouth and explained all about Muggle generators and how they make electricity on their own, and that maybe with a few charms on them, they could easily run in the magical world without knowledge.

Harry thought that this would be a good idea for the twins to sell, and told Mr Weasley that he could see what he could come up with, before quickly heading over to Ron and Hermione, who were still trying to get hold of Harry to talk through their plans for going back to school.

Before long, their conversations were ending and they were all heading up to bed as it was getting rather late. They all bid good night before heading up to their own rooms, and quickly falling asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Plans, discussions, initiations and meetings

Harry was having a dream. Not a bad dream. Not a boring dream, but a rather pleasant dream involving a certain red head and him. They were spending the afternoon together at the lake, enjoying each others company, while having a picnic. They were laughing, having fun, and enjoying themselves immensely. Until suddenly, Harry felt himself roll over on the blanket and fall onto something hard, the cold floor of his bedroom, where he was rolled out of bed by Ron, who had just been unceremoniously woken up by his mother, and witnessed Harry's mumblings about his dream.

"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine picnic boy," Ron teased, "You can't sleep in when you could be out laughing with my sister now can you?"

Harry just replied with an indignant moan as he got up from the floor, replacing the blankets on the bed, before picking up and putting on his glasses.

Harry quickly looked at the clock. 6.28 am

"Bloody hell Ron, it's barely dawn, what are you doing waking me up this early?" Harry asked.

"Well, first it's a beautiful day," Ron said, which made Harry huff with indignity.

"It will still be a beautiful day in three hours when we can get up at a decent time," Harry interjected.

"Well you haven't heard my second, more important reason yet," Ron said, cutting across Harry's whining, "And that is that mum wants us both up to help with the wedding, as it is in a few weeks, and mum has a lovely timetable for us both to follow."

"Hmmmm, which includes?" Harry asked.

"Well our job is to completely de-gnome the garden before cutting the grass, doing the weeding and replant the flower beds," Ron said.

Harry groaned very loudly at this, which caused Ron to look at him with alarm.

"What's wrong, Harry mate?" Ron asked.

"Well I've just spent three day's at the Dursleys doing that for them, I should become a Muggle Gardner by trade," Harry complained.

Run chuckled. "Well that would be a change in pace, unless it is some sort of cunning plan to get into you-know-who's garden and replace all his plants with devils snare or something."

Harry smiled at Ron's sense of humor. He always tried; he was definitely a great friend. "Well that would be something to think about," Harry said, "But right now, I had better get dressed."

Harry grabbed some clean clothes out of his trunk, which he still had not unpacked and headed for the bathroom to have a shower.

Harry had a very quick shower and dressed before heading down the stairs. On the first floor, Harry quite literally ran into Ginny, who nearly fell on her behind if she didn't grab hold of the door frame.

"Crap, Ginny, I'm so sorry," Harry said, worriedly, "I didn't see you."

"It's OK Harry, no harm done," Ginny replied, smiling.

Harry relaxed, but only slightly.

"Harry, I'm fine," Ginny said, noticed his discomfort, before kissing him soundly on the lips for a full minute.

Harry groaned with pleasure while Ginny kissed him. Harry's head was swimming with pure ecstasy.

Then suddenly, without warning, there was a high pitched cough behind them, "Hem, hem,"

The kissing pair broke apart instantly and turned to see who had coughed, only to find Ron standing there behind them, wearing a smile, and slightly red ears.

"Some of us would like to get some breakfast before it all goes, you know," Ron said, hinting that they all should head downstairs, "even if some of us aren't hungry for food."

Harry turned scarlet while Ginny only mildly blushed.

Suddenly and without warning, the twins decided to apperate onto the landing. They quickly glanced at the situation and obviously decided that some Fred and George banter was definitely needed.

"Why Harry, haven't you caught the sun's rays," Fred teased, knowing exactly what had been happening a few moments earlier as they had been secretly been using the extendible ears.

"Looks like Ginny has got a bit of a tan too," George pointed out.

Harry, at this point, was growing redder and redder with embarrassment.

"Did we interrupt something important?" Fred asked, noticing the silence.

"Only Harry and Ginny enjoying a nice quiet breakfast," Ron interjected, wanting to get in the most of this teasing that would be lacking severely in the next few days.

"Oh, Really," George asked, with an evil smile spreading across his features. "Tasty, was it, Harry?"

"Come on Harry," Ginny said suddenly, taking Harry by the hand and leading him downstairs to breakfast as Harry was growing redder and redder and redder.

Ginny and Harry quickly arrived at the kitchen, and by the looks of what was on the table, they were one of the first own for breakfast, which was amazing considering the number of Weasley boys currently in the building.

Ginny and Harry helped themselves to what they fancied for breakfast (food that is, not what was happening before but more of that later maybe??) and they both sat at one end of the table, close to where Mrs. Weasley normally sat, just to avoid any more teasing from the Weasley brothers, who were probably going to make their lives hell from now on considering that they were now the newest couple as well as family gossip.

Fred, George and Ron soon came into the kitchen in rather grumpy moods, which were intensified by Harry and Ginny's quick departure, but the main reason being the fact that most Weasley's are not morning people, and yet it was nearly 7.am, and they were up and dressed and nearly ready to get to work on their day's tasks which had been set according to plan by Mrs. Weasley, Wedding Planner Supreme.

They all ate their breakfast quickly and in silence, all thinking about the hard tasks that they had to do during the day, and how the sunny, humid, hot weather was going to affect them. Harry knew that he and Ron were going to get sunburned if they didn't get Mrs. Weasley to use the appropriate charm on them before they left the house to start work on the garden. Harry also knew that they needed to take a bottle of water with them so that they could drink it on the go so that they didn't dehydrate.

Everyone quickly finished, knowing that the sooner they finished their tasks, the sooner they could stop work before they mid afternoon heat set in and roasted them. Harry wanted to start especially early as he was still sunburned on the back of his neck from previous gardening work, and didn't want to make it worse by working during the worst part of the heat in the afternoon, even if he did have a charm placed on his skin.

"Right Ron," Harry said, looking directly at his best friend, "Best to start with the bushes, give them a right good going over, before filling in all the gnome holes, then we can get rid of all the weeds before working on all the gnomes, although if we wipe out most of the gnomes as we go, then we can have all the main slogging done before the heat kicks in at lunchtime."

Ron groaned. Harry was pleased as he knew how much Ron hated physical work, and Harry would make sure that Ron got a good share of all the hard work today.

Harry quickly grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge, before heading over to Mrs. Weasley, who placed an anti-sunburn charm on both he and Ron.

"See you at lunchtime Gin," Harry said to his gorgeous girlfriend, before kissing her romantically on the lips (causing the twins to wolf-whistle, which caused Harry to blush scarlet again), and heading out of the back door with Ron, who was scowling at the prospect of hard work.

Ron and Harry headed outside into the early morning sun and headed towards the garden shed where all the garden tools were kept. Ron was allowed to use magic (Thank God, Harry thought) while Harry had to do everything by hand.

Harry and Ron worked extremely hard on the garden until early afternoon when Mrs. Weasley called them into lunch. They were both were very red, both from slight sunburn and from hard work, and were drenched in sweat.

They had managed to trim back all the bushes until they were once again small, got rid of all the gnome holes by filling them in before using magic to compact all the soil so that the gnomes couldn't easily get back in the holes, or out of them if they were trapped inside when they were filled in.

Ron and Harry had also emptied most of the flower beds from the dead, dying and unsuitable plants as well as all of the weeds that had been allowed to take over the garden.

They were both exhausted but they knew that most of the hard work had already been done, which definitely pleased them both, even though they still had to go back out there after lunch and carry on working for a few more hours.

After they entered the kitchen, Harry decided that he should have a shower before having his lunch as he knew that he must smell a bit after all of the sweating he had been doing for the past six hours.

Harry went up to one of the burrows bathrooms and had a quick shower, before getting dressed into some new clothes and heading down for lunch.

Lunch was a rather quiet affair with everyone recovering from all of their hard work that they had been doing since seven in the morning. Everyone was tucking into their lunch and made quiet conversation with each other to find out exactly how their tasks were going. Ron was loudly complaining to Hermione about the amount of work that he was doing, and how Harry was bossing him around. This caused Harry to look in their direction suddenly and Ginny to glare at her brother.

"Ron, there is an easy way to renovate a garden and there is a hard way to do it, unfortunately if I was not here, then you would be doing it the hard way and it would take you a week to do, but if we do it my way, then its easier and its quicker, and besides most of the hard work is already done. All that needs doing is the grass, the edging and the planting which will be like a relaxing stroll compared to this morning," Harry argued, determined to rub his best mates nose in the fact that Harry knew more than him about gardening and that Harry knew what he was doing.

Ron opened and closed his mouth several times but didn't say anything as Ron knew that Harry was right plus the fact that his mother and sister were both giving Ron death glares that could almost literally kill.

Ron then just looked down and finished his lunch in silence before trooping back outside with Harry to finish the gardening, which, as Harry had said, been easier than the morning as all the hard work had been done.

There had been a small incident half way through the afternoon when all the gnomes tried to march back into the garden in a military formation but Harry, at the time, was watering the new plants with the Muggle garden hose (which had a charm on it so it didn't need to be plugged into anything so it was just the jet end with a meter long piece of hose which had the charm on it) but Harry and Ron soon had them all in custody with Ron's use of the stunning charm, impedimenta charm and petrificus totalus, which meant that none of the annoying garden gnomes escaped into the garden flower beds.

Ron and Harry then stored all the gnomes in a wooden barrel where all the garden waste went before Ron banished the waste away to the North Pole, after swearing that neither would tell what they had done to the gnomes to another living soul.

Ron and Harry went around the garden checking all of their work, from the lawn to the flower beds to the bushes. It was starting to get late and they were both exhausted but they both wanted to make sure that the work had been finished so that Mrs. Weasley didn't give them even more chores that were difficult to do in punishment for a poorly done job.

Harry and Ron, who were both satisfied that their best work had been done, slowly made their way back to the house, dragging their feet along the path, both two tired to even pick up their feet properly.

"OK Ron, we have to have a chat tonight after dinner with Hermione and Ginny, I doubt we are going to get another chance until after the wedding otherwise," Harry said.

"Right then, you tell Ginny and I'll tell Hermione, we can both tell them secretly when we meet them," Ron said, for once saying something intellectual.

Harry and Ron entered the kitchen of the Burrow and made their way to their girlfriends Ginny and Hermione.

"Hey, Gin," Harry greeted before putting his arms around his girlfriend and kissing her on her lips rather passionately, before whispering in her ear "Meeting tonight after dinner in Ron's room."

Ginny looked at him questioningly before realizing what the meeting was about.

They both then looked over at Hermione who has just groaned rather loudly and found their best friends snogging rather passionately. Harry looked back at Ginny who was giggling madly. Harry looked back at his best friends who were still snogging.

"Mind if we join in?" Harry asked loudly, causing his best friends to stop suddenly and turn a very deep red color.

"Well, thank you, now Hermione, I don't know if Ron has managed to tell you, unless you communicate effectively through snogging," Harry said, causing the pair to turn an even deeper scarlet, "But we all need to have a chat tonight after dinner about what happens after the wedding, there's no point us sitting round for the rest of summer waiting for school to start, it's best we get plenty of stuff done, but we aren't going to have a chance to have a chat together until after the wedding."

At that moment, Mrs. Weasley called them all down to eat, much to the relief of Ron and Hermione who were still blushing deeply and neither of them looking at Harry or Ginny who were both just grinning wickedly at the couple. Harry and Ginny both knew that they had found victims for some serious teasing, and were going to make sure that they were both teased shamelessly about this. Maybe catching them a few times would be even better than teasing, at least it would embarrass them more, Harry thought gleefully as he headed down the stairs.

Dinner was a rather lively affair with Tonks popping by part way through and Mrs. Weasley refusing to let her leave until she had eaten some food, something which Tonks eventually agreed to do. The polite disagreement that had taken place had taken place had amused many people in the kitchen until Tonks had sent some of them a death glare, causing them all to focus their attention on their meal.

However, once Tonks had sat down, she was back to her old self again, apparently forgetting the amusement that they all had shared over her disagreement a few moments earlier.

Everyone was enjoying themselves. It was as though there was no war on at all. It was as though it was just a dinner party, an impromptu gathering. But there was a war going on, and it was in the back of everyone's mind, especially Harry's. Harry knew that the end of the war was literally on his shoulders and his mission would determine its outcome. If he won, then there would be no more war. If he lost, then the country was lost, quite literally. Harry knew that he wasn't powerful at the moment to face him. He just hoped that all this training that he would get at school with Tonks and Moody (the magical law course is a cover remember, with extra lessons in the evenings where they would do research for their missions as well as training with Aurors, especially Tonks, Moody and Shacklebolt.)

Harry so desperately wanted to win. Not so that he would become a murderer, but so because he could finally have the life that he wanted, with his best friends, his family, his Ginny. That's what Harry was fighting for, his life, his future and his friends.

The evening meal quickly passed with many people just enjoying each other's company. All except Harry, who was being rather distant with everyone, lost in his thoughts. Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't question this, nor did they try and press him. They all knew that Harry was thinking hard about what he was going to say to them after dinner when they were upstairs. Harry often was distant when there was something major about to happen, and this meeting was going to be one of the major meetings of the summer between them.

Dinner ended after everyone had eaten desert, which of course, everyone had several portions of as it was quite addictive stuff. Mrs. Weasley had made everyone's favorites, including Harry's treacle tart.

Slowly, the kitchen emptied as everyone went into the living room to relax and listen to the WWN and talk to one another, but the quartet held back so that their disappearance would not be noticed for a while.

Mrs. Weasley had already headed into the living room and was listening to a special broadcast of favorite tunes, including many of Mrs. Weasley's which she was singing along to, which had caused quite a distraction for the teens in the kitchen.

They slowly crept out of the kitchen and headed up to the second floor rooms and quietly entered Ron's room and all sat down on the beds facing each other. Ron, Hermione and Ginny all stared at Harry expectantly waiting for him to begin the meeting, as it was him who called it.

"Right," Harry said quietly, "I think we should all fill Ginny in then we talk through what we are going to do after the wedding."

This caused Ron to turn quite red. "Ginny's too young Harry, we can't involve her in this" Ron said angrily but quietly, not wanting his mother to arrive.

Ginny was about to turn on her brother, when Harry suddenly spoke up.

"Ron, Ginny has first hand experience with Horcruxes and might be able to provide information to us, or might have some insight that might help us, plus you were the same age when you first learned about them," Harry said calmly at his best friend.

Ron paled at this, remembering the events of his second year quite clearly.

Ginny turned on Harry. "The diary was one of them? Why didn't you tell me?" Ginny hissed. "How could you keep something like this away from me Harry? After all we have been through!!"

Harry looked truly ashamed with himself. He was blushing and just staring at his feet, not meeting her gaze. He didn't want to see her anger and hurt in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Ginny, I couldn't tell anybody. It was only after me pestering Dumbledore that I could tell Ron and Hermione, then the lessons had ended before we started going out so there was no way for me to get to see him without suspicion to ask him about telling you about all this, but I trusted his judgment. He didn't even tell the order just in case there was a leak, and look what happened – there was Snape giving all the order secrets up before killing Dumbledore," Harry said quietly, still staring at his feet.

"Well then Harry, fix your mistake and fill me in," Ginny said angrily at her boyfriend.

Harry looked up and saw her anger radiating off of her. Harry knew that he would have been absolutely mad to argue with her as she was extremely formidable.

"Right, well some of this is going to be quite shocking but sadly its all true. Voldermort has managed to split his soul into seven parts and hide six of those parts in objects that he deemed important, which most are objects that belonged to Hogwarts founders. Two are confirmed destroyed. Well, first a Horcruxes are made through committing murder. Then the soul is split by committing it and the new part of the soul is transferred. One of the Horcruxes was indeed the diary that was destroyed in your first year, Ginny, and the other was a ring that was passed down through Slitheryn's family line to Riddle's mother's father. Riddle visited this house when his wizard grandfather was still in prison and found only his mad uncle there. Riddle then used the ring to store a Horcrux when he killed his Muggle father, and Muggle grandparents that lived nearby. He also might of created the diary at the same time, but sadly its only a guess." Harry said.

Ginny just stared at Harry with her mouth quite literally hanging open. Ron and Hermione were just following the story but were not shocked by it as Harry had told them it during the school year as he had learned it.

"What about the other Horcruxes?" Ginny managed to ask, after several minutes.

"Well, one is kept in Voldermort's snake, so that one is saved till last. The original piece was used to resurrect him, one is Hufflepuff's cup and one is the locket. And there is another that we aren't sure about since we have no idea what it is," Harry said, "Now I've been thinking while at the Dursleys and came up with a theory that might fit some facts that we might have about the locket. I thought since this R A B took the locket during the first war and put a fake in its place, it might be easier to track down. I thought it might be Regalus Black, and that the locket might have been the one that we couldn't open when we were decontaminating the house, but since we threw it out, it might be anywhere. But we do have a few leads in the form of Kretcher and the sneak thief," Harry said.

Ron and Hermione had perked up when Harry had said that he had been thinking, as it usually involved the creation of a plan that they needed to follow.

"Are you sure though Harry?" Hermione asked.

"It's worth a try. The pieces fit at the moment with all the evidence we have. It all depends on what we find out. All we need to do is get hold of Fletcher as well as Kretcher and interrogate them all. We can also ask Mrs. Weasley about what happened to all the stuff that was thrown out at HQ. Perhaps it was stored in some secret location or something. Since it was all had the Black crest on it, it might have been hidden somewhere since it couldn't fall in the hands of the ministry since they thought the house was unoccupied, we can do all our questioning after the wedding and see where we are after all of that," Harry said.

"Well that's a start at least," Ron said, "I thought it would take ages for us to get started on this."

"Well all it needs is a bit of thinking and planning Ron," Hermione snapped, "It's not some piece of homework for class you know that you put off until the last minute."

"Ok, Ok Hermione," Ron said in defeat.

"There's one last thing too," Harry said, desperate for his friends to stop bickering.

They all looked up at him suddenly, waiting for him to speak. Suddenly, he was quite nervous.

"I'm still going to be heading to Godric's Hollow too," Harry said, "But not until after my birthday in a month, just in case there is a death eater there, perhaps we can also get Remus to come with us if he is available, since he is the only person left who knows where it is, and will know the secret to the location."

"How do you know that he can tell us since he wasn't the secret keeper?" Hermione asked.

"Well I done some research after the funeral on secret keepers, and if a secret keeper betrays the people who gave him the secret to keep, then the people who originally knew the secret as well as the people who had originally been let into the secret can tell, now since Wormtail betrayed my parents, then Remus and I can tell the secret. But since I was only one at the time, I won't know the details unfortunately but he will, and he will be able to tell us, or at least me since I was let into the secret too. I might of only been one at the time but the magic is still ongoing. Plus, one more thing about it, there is always more than one secret keeper," Harry said, which caused Hermione to look at him skeptically, "There are the ones that originally hold the secret plus there are the secret keepers, so like at HQ, Sirius was the original holder since he owned the place, plus there was Dumbledore as the secret keeper, so either could tell the location but it is always harder for the original to divulge and is quite painful to do so since it is breaking through the magic but it can be done."

Hermione looked at Harry skeptically but Harry held his head high. He knew his information was correct as he had researched the topic himself.

"So," Ginny said, "We are going to see where this all started?" Ginny asked.

"Well, started for me at least," Harry said.

Ginny nodded at this, forgetting that she was still angry with Harry for not telling her about the diary sooner.

"Well, what we need to do first Harry before your birthday is to document all of the information that we have at the moment, at least before we start asking about the locket, then we can get to work on it easily, then we won't need to worry about forgetting anything, then all the information will be arranged logically, and it will make it easier for us to find clues and links plus if we need to interrogate anyone, we can sort out all the questions in advance so that we don't have to interrogate them more than once, then we can document all of their answers too," Hermione said, trying to take charge.

"Very risky Hermione, especially if someone else notices, it could get out. There's already more than enough people on it," Harry said.

"Well what we do is we store the information with Professor McGonagall. She can keep it in her office safely, and there won't be any worry about anyone else finding out," Hermione said proudly.

"Ok then, lets check with McGonagall the next time she is over to make sure she can store it for us, then we can get to work on it. Perhaps if we had it all in an interactive book of sorts where we can dictate all the information and update it through our voice patterns. Then it would run off those, our fingerprints as well as a password so no one else can get into it. Then only the four of us as well as Lupin and McGonagall can gain access as well, just in case a sneak thief student gets into the office," Harry said, smug that he came up with an even better idea on top of Hermione's idea.

"Well that would definitely solve any security problems," Ginny said "Plus that would use some of the free time we would have after the wedding until McGonagall next visits which will be a week after the wedding. Even though she will be here at the wedding, it would be too risky to approach her then because of the number of people coming."

"Plus then once we have our interactive book, I can put in all the information that Dumbledore provided, including all information gathered on the last mission the night he died – it might actually provide some information to help wit other security that Voldermort uses to guard the others. Then, when we first go to McGonagall's office, we can interrogate Dumbledore's portrait to find out any more information that he might not have got round to telling me about. I'm assuming that he wanted me to visit his portrait first of all if he were to die before the end of the mission anyway to pass on any more information that might be useful, like theories on locations, possible defenses, that sort of thing, then we can use that during the first week to track down the first item. Then during the holiday before we go back we can try track down the locket so we aren't wasting our time, we might be able to ask him about HQ too, including about setting up a new secret keeper," Harry explained.

"Sounds like a busy, productive holiday," Hermione said mildly.

At this Ron snorted rather loudly, causing Hermione to glare and Harry to suppress a laugh, for he knew that Ron was about to get a verbal beating.

"What are you laughing at Ron?" Hermione asked, threateningly.

"Well, coming up with something productive to do on the school holidays is not in the same league as hunting down evil snake like mass murderering racists now is it?" Ron asked.

After a few moments, a small smile fought its way onto Hermione's face.

"Well I suppose not, but at least its something unique which not many people would do during their summer holidays," she conceded, causing everyone to erupt with laughter.

They were all brought out of their laughter by a knocking on the door. Ron, being the closest to the door, jumped up and answered it to find Remus Lupin standing there.

"I have some news that some of you might like to hear. Harry, you, Ron and Hermione have been invited to the order meeting that is starting in a few minutes over at HQ. Ginny, you will have to have a chat with your mum as to whether you can go," Remus said, much to the delight of Ron and Hermione, to the half delight of Harry and annoyance of Ginny. Ginny looked over at Harry and saw that he wasn't happy either, which improved her spirits a bit, but not enough to stop her from stomping out of the room and down the stairs to where her mother was sure to be, ready to give her an argument of a lifetime.

"Get ready for the yelling," Ron said, knowing that once Ginny and his mum had an argument, it was extremely loud. Ron was proven right a few minutes later with Ginny's and Mrs. Weasley's voices echoing throughout the house yelling things like "you're too young" and "I'm not a little girl no more, mother or haven't you noticed because other people like my boyfriend certainly have," causing Harry to go crimson and Ron to glare at Harry for what he might of done with his baby sister, while Remus was about to laugh out loud over it. Even Hermione found that part of the yelling match rather amusing.

A few minutes of arguing later and it all went quiet downstairs.

"Think it's safe to go downstairs yet?" Harry asked, still blushing.

Everyone else in the room still looked unsure about this. They knew that if they ever crossed the firing line then they could get seriously hurt, something which they didn't want to happen.

"I think the worst is over," Remus said after a moment, leading the rest of them downstairs and into the kitchen. In there, Mrs. Weasley was washing up the last of dinner, muttering angrily to herself and Ginny was waiting in the corner, angrily glaring at her mother. It was quite clear that Ginny ha won the argument and was allowed to go to the meeting, even though her mother was against it.

"Right, let's head off to the meeting shall we?" Remus asked everyone, "Its only a few minutes before it starts and we don't want to be late, especially since its your first meetings," Remus said to the teenagers.

Ron, Harry, Ginny Hermione and Remus headed over to the fireplace, leaving Mrs. Weasley at the sink and traveled via the fire place to HQ where most of the order had already gathered.

Professor McGonagall looked up as they entered the kitchen.

"Welcome to you all," She greeted, "I didn't expect to see you here Miss Weasley, I daresay that you had quite a bit of convincing with your mother."

"You could say that," Ron muttered causing Harry to snigger, but stopped abruptly when Professor McGonagall and Ginny glared at him.

"Right, if you could all grab your seats, we will begin in a few minutes," Professor McGonagall said.

Harry had a sudden idea when Professor McGonagall was about to turn away. "Err, Professor?" Harry asked.

The professor quickly turned back. "Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"I was wondering if we could have a quiet word after the meeting in private," Harry asked.

"Certainly, if you and your friends wait in the dining room across the hall after the meeting, then the rest of the order won't ask questions about you hanging round," McGonagall almost whispered, "Even though it's your house, order members might still ask questions about our meeting so its best be discrete."

Harry nodded before walking over to where his friends had gathered, and took a seat.

They all looked quizzically at Harry, who merely shook his head to stop their questioning and to save it for later.

Harry took a moment to look around the kitchen. It was a very large room but at the moment it was very cramped as it was full of order members, all chatting amongst each other waiting for the meeting to start.

Harry looked over at the door and saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley enter. Mrs. Weasley still looked angry at her daughter being here, but Harry unusually didn't feel too much guilt at this. He knew that he should of tried to stop Ginny but knew honestly that if he did then he would probably be sitting in St Mungo's rather than at HQ.

Suddenly, Harry was pulled from his thoughts by Professor McGonagall standing up in front of the group and clearing her throat to gain everybody's attention. Silence was instantaneous and everyone focused themselves on the professor who was standing in front of the fire, waiting to start the meeting.

"Right, thank you for coming to the meeting everybody, is everyone ready to get started now?. I would first like to welcome Mr. Potter and his friends here this evening. I know that some of you think that they are too young to come to order meetings or be involved in this, but they have fought more death eater battles than some of us and are as experienced as some junior Aurors, so from now on, they will be attending as many meetings as they can for their input and for their own mission for which they have been assigned," Professor McGonagall said, which caused many whispers to break out.

"Quiet," The professor said, "Their mission will not be discussed as it was assigned by professor Dumbledore to be carried out if he died, and their mission can either win or loose the war for us, so we will be giving them as much help as they need and that is all I can say at the moment on that. But now lets get to other matters." Professor McGonagall said, before calling on each of the different order members who had on going tasks to fill in the rest of the order on their progress.

During the meeting, Harry was asked many times on his opinion and found that the room would often go silent while he gave his opinion and that it was taken into consideration. Harry found that there were few adults who took him seriously enough to truly listen to his opinions and they were all gathered in the room.

During the meeting, there were several interesting reports from order members of death eaters guarding several areas of apparent unimportance, like a cave on the south coast. Harry knew instantly that these areas where were the Horcruxes were being guarded and knew that he must inform the professor right away.

Once the room had calmed down momentarily, Harry took his chance.

"Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked timidly.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Yes Mr. Potter?" The professor asked.

"I think we should keep constant watch on those three areas of apparent unimportance, they might be of relevance to my mission, especially the one on the south coast," Harry said, hoping the professor might take the hint.

After several seconds, the Professors eyes went wide.

"You mean that they're there?" McGonagall asked cryptically.

"Well, not in the cave on the south coast, no, but we still need to keep an eye there as old snake eyes thinks there's still one there and it would give us advanced warning if he chose to visit it," Harry said, just as cryptically.

The professor nodded as Harry's request at constant surveillance, before giving out orders to different order members to watch several different areas where the Horcruxes were guarded before adjourning the meeting, which had broken out in whispering again because of the cryptic messages being swapped between Harry and Professor McGonagall.

The order members started to file out of HQ, but Harry didn't follow the members out, as he entered another room off the main corridor, which held the dining room, closely followed by Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Remus.

"That was risky brining all that up Harry, you should of kept quiet," Hermione reprimanded, "What if an order member spy runs to Voldermort?"

"We don't think we have a spy as yet, Hermione, all of our missions since Snape left have went successfully," Remus said, "But you're right, it was risky."

"I didn't reveal anything; all old snake eyes will know is that we have a mission, and that those unimportant areas are being watched by members of the order. All we have to do is get in those areas quickly, take the Horcruxes and destroy them all before snake eyes knows what we are doing. We only have to get three before the main battle since we can't get to the snake before the end anyway otherwise he might get suspicious. Anyway, we can have them all gathered up before school starts anyway, with any luck," Harry said, just as Professor McGonagall entered the room.

"Right, those areas will be under constant surveillance from now on, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley will be able to accompany you three to the sites. Sorry Miss Weasley, but since you aren't of age, we can't let you go out on missions," Professor McGonagall said, before anyone could say a word, "Although I would like all four of you to join the order of the phoenix though, if all of you are willing."

"We are," Hermione, Ron and Harry said in unison.

"I am, but I can be useful by being on the mission's professor," Ginny argued.

"You can't go Miss Weasley, that is my final word, and don't argue this with Harry either as he won't have a say in the matter," McGonagall said, predicting Ginny's next argument.

Harry turned to Ginny. He knew that she was going to blow any second. With all that had gone on this evening, Harry found it astounding that she had kept her temper this long with the Professor.

"Ginny, I know how you feel about not being allowed, but you will still have an active role, we might need your help with destroying them, especially since they will all be done at Hogwarts. Also, we need to do plenty of planning and work for the missions, even though it looks like we know where to go for most of them, so its not like you're going to be shut out, its just that you can't be there all the time," Harry said, but quickly holding up his hand to silence Ginny, who was about to interrupt, "If it were up to me Gin, I'd take you with me if you really wanted to go, but the decision is out of my hands on this."

Ginny looked like she was about to explode. Harry approached her and put his hands on her hips, before kissing her softly on the lips. Ron looked like he wanted to pound Harry's face for making a move on his sister, but Hermione quickly stopped him. "He will calm her down, just watch and see," Hermione whispered.

"I know how you feel Gin, Dumbledore made me feel the same, but its best just to let it go and trust their judgment, there's still plenty for you to help with," Harry whispered to her.

Ginny's face softened, and without warning, she hugged Harry and whispered "I'm sorry Harry; I was being selfish wanting to know everything and needing to be there all the time,"

"It's OK Gin, now lets finish up here and head home shall we?" Harry asked.

Ginny nodded before letting go of Harry.

"Well professor, we were going to corner you after the wedding when you dropped by, but I think this is as good as any. Do we need to set up a new secret keeper?" Harry asked.

Harry saw that this question had taken the professor by surprise, but she had quickly masked this surprise with her usual exterior.

"Well I was going to ask you to stay behind anyway and set up a new secret keeper, either you or me as secret keeper, whichever you prefer," Professor McGonagall said.

"Well at the moment, I think it would be best if you were secret keeper since you are the head of the order, then you can inform new members of the order as and when. Even though we know the likely areas where the Horcruxes are stored, it's still going to take a while for us to get to them, at least until we are a few weeks into the start of term since we still need to do a lot of planning and preparations for it, then there is still the final battle which might still be a long while off yet, depending on everything. I'm predicting close to Easter is when the final battle will occur, and will more than likely be at Hogwarts since it's where I am and is also where the rest of you will be do," Harry said, looking at the other members of the meeting.

"Right then, I can arrange for Professor Flitwick to arrange the charm for after your seventeenth birthday. Unfortunately, you can only do it if you are of age and the owner of the property, which is why we will have to wait plus we can get him to witness and perform your initiations at the same time with the order of the phoenix charm," The professor explained.

"What about Snape?" Harry asked, wondering about HQ's safety.

"Several new defenses have been put up specifically against Snape, the Floo, the door, everywhere is Snape proof," McGonagall said with conviction.

Harry nodded. "Right, also, I was going to construct a sort of interactive book where we could keep all of our information about our mission. Interrogations, theories, possible locations, defenses, plans, that sort of thing to help us along the way, but unfortunately our knowledge is rather lacking, and we were wondering if we could use the library at Hogwarts after the wedding to do a bit of research so that we can construct it, well with the Weasley twins help, as it would be a good product for them to sell."

"Permission granted, as long as Professor Lupin goes along to keep madam prince away and to help you with your task as I believe he has some knowledge on interactive products," Professor McGonagall said, looking over towards Lupin, who blushed slightly.

"Err, one last thing," Harry said, blushing slightly, "I was wondering if we could store it within your office at Hogwarts, for safety. We can't store it at the burrow or here because of the number of people who don't know about the mission, neither can we keep it in the dorms in case it fell in the wrong hands, even though it will have plenty of security, I don't really want to loose it as we will only have one copy."

Professor McGonagall thought about this for several moments. "I'll be able to store it somewhere less obvious than my office, but I will have to double check it before getting back to you, I need to make sure that it is properly secure for your requirements."

"Thanks professor, we had best be heading back to the Burrow, if there isn't anything else," Harry said.

"Off you go, and make sure you lot have an early night, I heard something about Molly Weasley giving you all labor intensive tasks tomorrow," Professor McGonagall warned.

"Thanks Professor," Harry said gratefully, before following Remus and his friends out of the room and to the fireplace to Floo back home to the Burrow to get an early rest.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Wedding Preparations

Unfortunately for the teenagers, Professor McGonagall had been correct the night before. Mrs. Weasley going into overdrive with the wedding, and it all started by Mrs. Weasley waking everybody up at 5.30 to carry on getting the burrow ready for the wedding as it was only a week away. It was already the beginning of July and the time was just flying by for everyone even though they all had tones of work to do.

The teenagers slowly get ready and head down to breakfast. They were still very tired, having gotten little sleep the night before after all of the information that they had heard during the order meeting, as well as with the meeting with the headmistress right after. During breakfast, Hermione bade farewell to the Weasley's and headed home to her parents where she would spend the next week before the wedding, then the two weeks after it until Harry was 17. She had only come to the Burrow the previous day at the invitation of Ron, so that they could both go to the order meeting together then she could stay over before heading back home at breakfast.

They all ate their breakfast before pairing up and getting their jobs from Mrs. Weasley. Luckily for Harry, he had managed to pair up with Ginny, and was given the task of clearing the chicken coup as well as the shed. Ron got extremely annoyed with this and tried to inform his mother that they would spend their time snogging if left alone, but Mrs. Weasley would not listen to her son as she knew that Harry wouldn't snoop to such levels if they had work to do, before she gave Ron the job of cleaning the attic with Charlie.

Ron complains even more, but Mrs. Weasley stops him, telling him that Harry and Ginny know the most about Muggle devices, considering that Harry lived in the Muggle world and that Ginny had taken an O.W.L. In Muggle studies, so they knew the most about the objects that they needed to sort through, as they both had to get rid of the broken items, and there were quite a few to dispose of.

This argument caused Ron to storm out of the kitchen and stomp all the way up to the attic rather loudly, while everyone else excluding his mother sniggered.

"Too bad Hermione went home this morning to her parents, otherwise he wouldn't have said anything," Harry whispered to Ginny.

"Only because he would of wanted to snog her senseless in the attic for a few hours while they used magic to do all the work," Ginny replied, "Ron can be quite the hypocrite when he wants to be."

"Too right, I've seen that side of him more than once," Harry said.

"Lets remember to tell the twins later when they get back from the shop, they can have sweet revenge by teasing him rotten, both for wanting Hermione and to get revenge on him teasing us," Ginny said.

"Good idea, I can't wait to see which shade of red that Ron's ears go, it's bound to be a sight," Harry said.

"Yeah it will be, he's very touché when it comes to Hermione," Ginny replied quietly.

"Yeah he is, but sadly we can't stay here all day and talk about Ron and his sensitive topics, we have work to do," Harry said sadly, looking at his girlfriend.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Lets start with the chicken coup first then we can work in the shed later on when it starts to warm up as the shed has magic on it so it is always cool," Ginny said as she and Harry made their way to the back door.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Harry said, following Ginny through the door into the yard.

Harry and Ginny spend the next few hours sorting out the chickens which need quite a bit of tending, but have it sorted before the heat takes hold. Harry never thought that chickens needed so much work, but assumed that small tasks accumulated in the garden and often turned into a much larger task that took several hours.

Harry and Ginny took a short break so that they could catch their breath and have a drink before starting on their monumental task of sorting out the shed, which had been magically expanded into a massive room inside, which was around the size of a football pitch and was crammed with Muggle artifacts and devices.

They slowly spent the rest of the morning till lunch was ready sorting through all of the Muggle devices determining if they were broken or not. Ginny found herself out of her depth on most of the equipment that her dad had in the shed and had to ask Harry's opinion on most of it, since he knew what it all was.

Ginny felt, when she was asking Harry for his opinion on a Muggle Device that she had let everyone down since she was the one in the family who was supposed to know the most about Muggle technology. This was apart from her father of course who had made a career within the ministry knowing about Muggle devices, and here she was asking Harry every few minutes about a different item that she wasn't sure about.

During the several hours until lunch, Harry and Ginny had amassed a large pile of stuff that no longer worked or was of no use, or even duplicate stuff, since Mr. Weasley had many items that were the same, such as a very large collection of batteries. Harry had counted some of these and found over a hundred of a single type.

Mrs. Weasley decided to listen to Ron for a moment and popped in just before lunch to "make sure they were ok," although she was really there to make sure that they were both working instead of attached at the lips.

Mrs. Weasley finds them both working hard in the shed and sees that they had both made plenty of progress with sorting through all of the items.

She even took a moment to look at the Muggle Television that Harry had managed to get working, by using a Wizarding device that converted magical energy into electricity and made a Muggle device work, without actually paying for electricity. Harry had managed to get all the different channels working and the television was set to the lunchtime news on BBC1.

Mrs. Weasley calls them both in for lunch, which is ready in the kitchen, stopping for a moment to watch a news report about the resignation of the Muggle prime minister because of a scandal, before she headed back into the house after Harry and Ginny.

Ron glares at Harry and Ginny while eating his lunch, before Ginny whispers something into her brother's ear, which causes him to blush scarlet and spend the rest of lunch staring at his plate. Harry tries to question her but she shakes her head warningly.

After their lunch, Harry and Ginny get back to work as they still have part of the shed to sort out. The Muggle Television was still going and was now showing the latest episode of the Australian soap Neighbors. Harry never watched the Television show but quickly got into it as he worked, and so did Ginny by the sounds of her complaining when the show ended, as she complained loudly that there was no ending to the show and it shouldn't be shown. Harry only laughed at this before explaining all about soap operas and how they always end on cliff hangers to get everyone to watch the next show.

The afternoon sped by as Harry and Ginny finished their work in the shed. There was not too much work left to do and they had managed to easily get all of the work completed before tea and ready for one last inspection by Molly Weasley before tea arrived – which they passed with flying colours.

"Right then dears, that's practically everything done now," Molly said as they all walked back into the Burrow, "Not much else to do apart from the food for the reception but that won't get done until the day before."

"Good to know," Ginny said, "I haven't felt more exhausted since we cleared out headquarters."

"Same here," Harry murmured, "I think I'll go grab a quick shower before tea."

Harry didn't take too long in the shower and was soon back downstairs in the living room with the rest of the Weasley's who were staying for dinner. Harry's stomach was rumbling and luckily he didn't have to wait long for Mrs Weasley to call everyone for dinner.

After the usual Weasley stampede to the table, everyone was seated and were engaged in piling as much food on their plates as possible. The table groaned under the usual weight of food that was piled on it and everyone immediately agreed that it smelled wonderful and tasted delicious.

Even though Harry was happy and was finally enjoying himself, he couldn't stop the nagging feeling at the back of his mind alerting him that something wasn't quite right and that he should be alert. It had been months since he had the feeling and yet he knew that there wouldn't be any dangers at the Weasley's, especially with all the security precautions that they were taking with the wedding.

After dinner, everyone retired to the living room. Mr Weasley had brought home a Muggle board game called Monopoly and was having an enjoyable time examining all of the pieces.

Harry, who had nothing better to do, decided to take pity on the man and went over to explain the game to him. After a long discussion, Mr Weasley had convinced Harry to actually play a quick game – which of course is a normal game but with a time restriction.

The game lasted an hour and a half and left Harry as the clear winner since Mr Weasley was practically bankrupt and didn't have any properties while Harry had used his common sense and had invested in various areas of the board and took advantage of the various houses and hotels that could be bought.

After he and Mr Weasley had put the game away in its box, Harry decided to head up to bed where he quickly fell asleep, unaware of the secret meeting taking place in the living room...


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Wedding Days and Bank Demands

The final week leading up to the wedding passed extremely quickly for everyone and the morning of the wedding quickly arrived, much to everyone's anxiety. Everything that was humanly and magically possible had been done, from booking different events as well as backups as well as preparing everything that needed to be prepared.

All that had to happen was for everyone to get dressed and arrive at the ceremony site on time.

Harry decided to grab an early shower and get dressed in his dress robes before everybody else started to rush around trying to get ready, as was the normal way in the Weasley household.

Harry headed directly towards the living room and seconded a place in the corner where he could sit and read, as well as watch the mayhem unfold as the wedding strart time slowly approached. Of course, since it was a deadline and there were things to do, time seemed to speed up and everyone began rushing round as the time remaining continuously got shorter.

Harry watched as people dashed around looking for various items, from shoes to socks to ties. Everything that should of easily been prepared days in advanced were hurriedly prepared in a rush. Harry was so engrossed in watching these festivities that he didn't see an official looking owl fly in through the door and land next to him. It was only when it pecked him on the finger that Harry actually noticed the owl and the official looking letter that it carried.

Harry untied the letter and watched as the bird took a step back from him but didn't take off back out of the door, but just stood there and stared at Harry, waiting him to read the letter.

Harry looked at the envelope and concluded that it was a pretty formal letter. Upon turning the letter over, Harry immediately identified who the sender was as Harry recognised the seal of Gringotts banks on its reverse.

Harry quickly began to think of reasons why the bank would be writing to him. It wasn't like he didn't have any money, nor that he was spending anything. It wasn't like he had to spend a certain amount of money each year or anything.

Harry quickly opened the envelope and began to read the letter that was inside, his face becoming rather pale as he finished it. It had read:

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_We must inform you that you have been mentioned in the will of the late headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. Furthermore, we still have outstanding business with you in regards to the will of Sirius Black._

_We therefore request that you come to the bank as soon as possible to hear the contents of these documents and to put them into effect._

_We request that you forward a time and date with the owl that delivered this letter to let us know when you can come into the bank._

_Yours,_

_Skullbreaker_

_Gringotts Legal Department_

Harry stared at the letter for several minutes before quickly folding it back up and putting it in his pocket. Harry then quickly stood up and grabbed a piece of parchment off the counter along with a quill and some ink and quickly scribbled a message to the goblin at the bank telling him that he would be there the day after, if he could sneak away. Harry quickly gave the letter to the owl who accepted it quickly and flew out of the window at lightening speed.

Harry thought about what the letter had told him. He had thought that Sirius's will had been taken care of by Professor Dumbledore but if the bank needed to see him because of it, then it looked like not everything was in order with them. Harry spent a few minutes pondering what it actually meant.

Harry was broken out of his thoughts by Ron quickly entering the kitchen in his new dress robes that had been bought by the twins.

"We need to head out there Harry, the seating is filling up real quick and people are eyeing ours up like hawks," Ron said as he adjusted the hem of his robes.

"Right then, lets get out there," Harry said with gusto, before standing up and heading outside with Ron to where the wedding was actually taking place.

The wedding was taking place in an orchard which was located a few minutes walk away from the house. It looked stunning during the summer months when all of the flowers came into bloom with their various colours and smells but with the different charms and various pieces of wedding regalia that had been placed around the area, the orchard looked even more fantastic and had beauty on angelic proportions.

Harry headed towards the front with Ron and took his seat next to Hermione in the second row. Hermione had managed to get a portkey to the Burrow for the day to see the wedding before heading back to her parents for a few more weeks.

Harry didn't really know what to expect with the wedding ceremony as he had never seen any type of wedding before. Harry decided not to dwell on it and just merely let it happen. It wasn't like he was taking part in it or anything, just merely observing it.

This was something that Harry was most definitely grateful for. He didn't know how he would be able to react if he had to take part in the wedding as well. Being on display in front of large crowds always made Harry very nervous so was very grateful when he would be taking a non-lime light role and being just another face at another family wedding.

The wedding seemed to pass in a blur for Harry. It didn't appear to be too much time between when he sat down at the Wedding and when he was leaving for the reception. Harry thought about the letter that he had received from Gringotts and thought about heading there during the reception since it was only mid afternoon. He might actually get away with getting there and back without anyone noticing.

As everyone left for the reception, Harry crept over to the floo and travelled directly to the bank. As usual, Harry slid out of the fireplace on his behind instead of stepping out of it gracefully but didn't pay it much attention as he jumped up and dashed over to the head teller's station and asked to speak to Skullbreaker.

The goblin at the station led Harry to an office which had another goblin in it working at a desk.

"Ah Mr Potter," The second goblin said, "I'm glad that you could come in so quickly. I will try to get this done as quickly as possible as I am aware that there are parties that will notice your absence."

"Thank you Skullbreaker," Harry said, "Shall we get all this sorted?"

"Of course," Skullbreaker said, "Please have a seat and I will grab the files that we need to sort through."

The goblin went to a filing cabinet and withdrew three box files from within its magically expanded depths and returned to the desk.

"Right I think that it is best Mr Potter that we start with Sirius Blacks Will and work our way through with the paperwork for that, as it will be more beneficial for you to get that done first and it will save a mountain of tedious paperwork later on," Skullbreaker explained as he opened the first box.

"Fine with me, anything to allow me to return unnoticed," Harry said, bracing himself for what was to come.

Harry watched the goblin as he removed a scroll that was tied together with a piece of red ribbon and a sealed envelope.

The goblin untied the ribbon from the scroll and began to read.

"I Sirius Black, do hereby write my last will and testament. I hereby reinstate Andromeda Tonks, her husband and daughter into the most ancient and noble house of Black. Also, I renounce Narcissa Black-Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Black-LeStrange and Redulphus LeStrange from the most ancient and noble house of Black and withdraw any access that they have to anything relating to this family. I also withdraw all funding that they have from this most noble and ancient house. I hereby leave the three newly reinstated family members one million galleons each. I also wish to formally adopt Harry Potter to allow him to be a formal member of this house. Harry I know that I am now dead but please accept this. It will help you. I also fully emancipate Harry Potter and declare him an adult. I also leave everything else to Harry Potter. Harry, I know that I am no longer there for you but I should warn you that there is a plot. Please accept everything in my will and also read the letter that the Goblin has for you. It will explain everything. I'm sorry for having to leave the information in a letter but it is information that you need, even though it will cause you great heartbreak and because you to rethink everything. You can trust Andromeda and her daughter implicitly as they are the only people who are not aware of what is in the letter and are not involved so you can trust them. Be safe Harry and follow the information in the letter."

Harry sat there stunned. He had a niggling feeling a few times that something was up but couldn't place it and yet here was Sirius giving him the information on it and that it was dangerous. More than dangerous. It sounded life changing.

The goblin promptly handed the letter over to Harry who opened it immediately and begun reading the information on the parchment.

The goblin, who was staring at Harry intently, waiting to find out if Gringotts needed to do anything, saw Harry read through the letter, slowly becoming paler and paler and paler.

Harry sat there stunned. The letter practically turned Harry's life on its head and blew it apart, causing his whole life to self combust before his very eyes before vaporising in a haze of smoke.

Harry re-read the letter.

_Dear Harry,_

_If you are reading this, then I have passed into the next world. I knew that it was likely that it would happen before the end of the war, and since you are reading this then it has happened._

_I do not regret dying, I knew it was coming, and I just hope that I actually went in battle instead of in my sleep. That is the way I wanted to go._

_Anyway, on to the real reason that I wrote this letter. I have expected that it has been delayed, but I'm hoping that the goblins have finally managed to contact you in time. I'm saying this because Dumbledore, even though he is on the side of light, is a very manipulative fool and wants you under his thumb regardless and lets just say that he doesn't trust me – and quite right considering I want you to be your own man and to make your own decisions._

_I'm just sorry that I couldn't tell you in person during your fifth year at school. But I was forced to take a vow of silence, else have my entire memory erased and handed back over to the dementors. Something that I most certainly didn't want._

_Anyway, I must warn you that there is a plot. Quite a few of the members of the order are in it but it mainly consists of Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Ginny and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger._

_Kingsley, Nymphadora and Mad Eye were all on your side along with me and were trying to derail the plan but Dumbledore forced our silence._

_This plot consists of Dumbledore and the senior Weasley's wanting full control of the Potter estates, and since I am gone, they will try to get to my estate too since I have left it all to you._

_They plan on doing this through Ginny Weasley and getting her to marry you as soon as you become of age. I know that this is a shock but please heed this warning. They may of cared for you once but they don't any longer. Luckily, your mum and dad put in place a "Freeze in Trust" order, which meant that nothing could come out of any of your accounts apart from your Trust fund which was set up for school. The only activity with your accounts would be money going in and regular funding for shares and sponsorships that your parents set up – but these sums are actually less than what you receive in dividends each year as well as interest so no need to worry there._

_Now that I have emancipated you, the goblins will transfer full control of the Potter estate to you and will give you full control of the Black estate. This means that you are now head of the family for both the Blacks and the Potters. Now, the Potters have a family mansion that was hidden under the same secrecy spell as HQ. Now in your family vault, there will be a Journal that will grant you full access to the mansion. Anybody who had access before would have forgotten all of the information when your parents died so you can now start fresh._

_Now that you know about the plot, you must get yourself out of there. I know that you have a large task ahead of you but you need to make sure that you can trust all of your friends, well those who I haven't already mentioned. Whatever happens, do not trust those I have already mentioned that are plotting against you as they will be extremely ruthless and will never come over to your side so be wary and keep looking over your shoulder._

_Now here is what I need you to do. First, get the goblin here to enact the Potter will, then go to the family vault and read the part of the journal relating to the manor – but do not remove it, just in case. Then go and get all of your belongings, head to HQ, collect Tonks and both of you need to head to the mansion as soon as possible. There you will both be safe. Then give Tonks the piece of paper in the envelope and get her to read it and then she will be able to help you._

_Sirius_

Harry looked in the envelope and pulled out a second piece of parchment.

It read:

_I, Sirius Black, do release Nymphadora Tonks from her oaths to Sirius Black to allow her to talk to Harry Potter and to any that Harry Potter gives permission to talk to._

Harry sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before looking up at the Goblin and asking him to enact the Potter will.

The goblin nodded and opened up the second box and retrieved the will from inside.

The goblin opened it and began to read.

We, James and Lily Potter, leave our entire estate to Harry James Potter upon his seventeenth birthday or emancipation. Until then, we place the entire family estate in a Freeze in Trust until the day that Harry is seventeen or emancipated, whichever is first.

Since Harry is the last member of the Potter family, the end of line clause of the Potter family comes into effect from this moment in time.

This end of line clause is nothing to worry about Harry but it will force you to do two things for the Potter family. I know that you might not be ready but for the family, it needs to be done.

Harry – you must marry someone of your own choosing within the next twelve months and have a child with them within eighteen months of the marriage. I know that you are young and I know Harry that you might not be ready, nor have found the right person, but the Potter line needs to continue for the sake of the Wizarding world. I know that Dumbledore has probably been using the "Greater Good" line on you a few times but this needs to be done as for a thousand years, the Potter family have been on the side of light and have always fought the dark, whether it be members of the order or members of law enforcement. It needs to continue, son.

James and Lily Potter

Harry sat there in stony silence with tears running down his face. How could his parents force him to marry at a young age when he had just found out that he was being manipulated by his girlfriend, the one he had loved.

After several minutes of deathly silence, the goblin cleared his throat, startling Harry out of his daze.

"Mr Potter, we still have the will of Professor Dumbledore to go through. In it, he has left you several things including his rather extensive library, his pensive and a large selection of memories. Since the will has already been enacted by his brother, the contents have already been shrunk and placed in your vault for you to deal with," The goblin explained.

Harry nodded mutely. "Is there anything else to deal with?" Harry asks the goblin.

"Well yes Mr Potter. Now that you are emancipated and the head of both families, you now inherited the titles of both lines as well as their seats on the Wizengamot. You have inherited the titles of Lord Baron from the Potter line and the title of Lord from the Black family as well as a Lordship from Gryffindor himself. That means that you have at least four votes within the legislature and you also have a seat on the judiciary as well. I have a feeling that you might not like these but it is your legal requirement to actually attend the meetings and participate once you have inherited them," The goblin explained, "They normally owl members one week before a meeting to give you time to prepare."

"Thank you," Harry said sombrely, "Now if it is possible, I would like to visit the Potter family vault."

"Of course Lord Barron Potter," The goblin said before pressing a button on his desk, "Now here are your two family rings. They are normally worn on the middle fingers and they are used to open the vault doors to any vault that you are entitled to, including your trust fund, and also used in the voting at the Wizengamot, each ring will contain the required number of votes that each family line has."

"Thanks," Harry said as he took the rings from the goblin and placed them on his middle fingers.

Several moments later, another goblin entered and bowed.

"Please take Lord Barron Potter to vault seven please," The goblin said to the new goblin.

"Certainly," The goblin said before beckoning for Harry to follow.

Harry quickly thanked Skullbreaker and followed the second goblin out of the office and into the one-speed-only carts that would take him to where his family vault was.

They both quickly got into a cart and sped towards the bowls of the bank where the family vaults were stored. The cart was speeding like a roller coaster ride and even had many turns, dips and dives that roller coasters have. After nearly fifteen minutes on the fast cart, they arrived outside the vault and disembarked.

"Just place your palm against the door and you will be recognised," The goblin said.

Harry nodded and did as he was instructed. After several seconds, there were a few clicks from the door and the door disappeared from view, allowing Harry to enter the vault.

Inside, the vault was massive. It was larger than the entire great hall and that was saying something. There were huge mounds of gold. Harry nearly gaped at it. There appeared to be millions piled there, waiting to be used. Harry managed to drag his eyes away from the money and looked around the rest of the vault and spotted a large oak desk sitting in one corner.

Harry headed over to the desk and looked at it. In the middle of the desk sat a large, leather bound book that had an inscription on the front.

"_Journal of the Potter Family. Current Head of House: Harry James Potter."_

Harry stared in amazement at the journal for a moment before opening it and looking at the table of contents. Harry spotted the section on the manor and turned to the correct page and began to read.

After reading the chapter, Harry closed the journal and removed his wand. Harry wanted to follow the first section of the instructions which was to cast a spell on the journal to bind Harry's mind to the Potter family and transfer all of the family power to him – which would allow him to take Tonks and head to the manor, as Sirius had said.

Harry cast the spell and nothing happened. After several seconds, Harry felt a sharp pain in his head which lasted for a couple of seconds before vanishing again.

Harry was now the secret keeper for the Potter manor and knew everything that he needed to know, from the status of the wards to where the house elves were.

Harry then grabbed a small money bag that had been expanded inside, counted two hundred and fifty galleons before heading back to the cart and heading to the surface.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry used the bank's floo to head back to the Burrow where he quietly headed to his bedroom and packed up all of his belongings. Harry then quickly wrote a note for the Weasley's that he would leave on the kitchen table and then headed downstairs.

Before Harry got downstairs, Harry had an idea. He then called one of his house elf's and gave him his trunk and owl and asked him to put it in the master bedroom and to place Hedwig in the Avery. Harry then whispered the location into Hedwig's ear so she would know where she now lived and that the wards would not exclude her.

Once the house elf vanished, Harry put the note he was going to leave on the kitchen table and headed downstairs, intending on grabbing Tonks before disappearing with her – if she was willing to go with him.

Harry quietly exited the house and headed towards the party, intending on finding Tonks. He quickly glanced around all of the milling guests and saw her and Remus over in the corner, obscured partly by a privacy dome.

Harry slowly approached and saw that they were yelling and screaming at each other. Harry stood away from the couple and waited for them to finish, not really wanting to interrupt and be caught in the middle of an argument.

After a couple of minutes, Harry saw Remus storm away and head back towards the Burrow. He then looked over at Tonks and saw her standing there with tears running down her face.

Harry quickly walked over. "Hey, what's the matter?" Harry said to her quietly.

"Remus just left me," Tonks said before breaking down into sobs.

Harry quickly put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. He was never this forward with a girl, especially one that was crying, but had a feeling that it was the right thing to do.

Tonks quickly threw her arms around Harry and sobbed into his shoulder for a couple of minutes before calming down and slowly letting go of Harry and wiping her eyes.

"Hey, come with me," Harry said, taking hold of her hand and steering her towards the house.

Tonks looked at him, wondering what was happening and what he wanted to be alone with her before.

Harry removed the slip of paper from his pocket that Sirius had written and handed it over to Tonks as soon as they entered the kitchen.

Tonks stared at it in shock for several moments before looking up at Harry.

"How much do you know and how did you get to the bank without anyone finding out?" She asked quietly.

"Went as soon as the wedding finished. Just got back. This is how much I know," Harry said, removing Sirius's letter and handing it over to her.

She gasped when she saw that Sirius wanted her to go with Harry and leave the Weasley's.

"How can I just up and leave Harry?" She asked, "I still have my job to go to and the order will never just let me go."

She saw Harry smirk. It wasn't a simple smirk but a large "I know something that you don't" smirk.

"Luckily I know that Sirius just left you, your mum and your dad a million galleons each and reinstatement into the most noble and ancient house of black," Harry said, causing Tonks to gasp and throw her arms around Harry again.

"Right then, I'll quit my job and the order as soon as possible then, there's just too much paperwork to deal with nowadays and I absolutely hate that. Now how do we pack up all your belongings and quietly get out of here without anyone noticing?" Tonks asked.

"Simple. I already have my stuff at the Manor as I got a house elf to pick it up a few minutes ago, so we just need to floo there once I told you its secret location but we will do that next to the floo," Harry said, "Now lets get out of here."

Harry and Tonks walked the very short distance to the fireplace. "Ok Tonks," Harry said, "Just say Potter Manor in Oxford and it will take us there."

Tonks nodded before stepping into the flames and flooing away.

Several seconds later, Harry placed the note on the table and followed her into the floo and slid out of the fireplace at Potter Manor.

Harry, as usual, slid out of the fireplace on his bum, causing Tonks to snigger at him.

Harry jumped up, blushing slightly and brushed all of the soot off himself.

"Shall we have a look around then?" Harry said, trying to cover his own embarrassment.

"Sure thing," Tonks said as she followed Harry out of the living room.

Harry and Tonks spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the Manor, making sure that they picked out their bedrooms as they went. As Tonks picked out her room, one of the House Elves appeared and asked if Tonks had any belongings that needed to be put away.

"We can always move your belongings in here, no need for you to live in that flat any more if you don't want to," Harry said before blushing a rather scarlet colour.

Tonks quickly took pity on him and kissed him on the cheek. "Harry, you're really sweet and kind and I would love to move in if you would have me," Tonks said quietly, causing Harry to look at her hopefully.

"Really?" Harry whispered, not wanting to be disappointed by her turning him down.

"Yeah Harry really, besides, I really wanna get to know the real you better personally instead of through someone else, and I thought I could help you train a bit too," Tonks said.

"That would be brilliant," Harry said before turning to the elf. "Can you head to Miss Tonks flat and bring all of her belongings here please and move them in. Tonks don't forget to tell your landlord," Harry said.

"Don't worry Harry," Tonks said as she looked around her room, "Mind if I go floo him now and I will be able to show your wonderful elf where I live at the same time?"

"Go for it," Harry said, "I think I will head to my room for a nap for a bit, long day and all that."

And with that, they both headed their separate ways to carry out their tasks...


End file.
